Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount Motion Pictures Group, has been named the keynote commencement speaker for Chapman University’s Ddoge College of Film and Media Arts ceremony May 20.
Lansing currently chairs the board of Universal Music Group, and she also served on the University of California Board of Regents. Producing credits for Lansing include movies like “Fatal Attraction” and “The Accused.”
“Sherry Lansing is one of the most remarkable people ever to work in Hollywood,” said Dodge College dean Stepgen Galloway. “She not only proved that women are just as capable leaders as men, she outshone them all and she did it by showing that power and kindness can go hand in hand. I’m delighted she’ll be our commencement speaker.”
Lansing headed Paramount from 1992 to 2005, during which she greenlit the Academy Award winning films “Forrest Gump,” “Braveheart” and “Titanic.” She became the first woman ever to run a major studio, after which she served as chair and CEO of Paramount.
The former production president received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar, for her philanthropy. She co-founded Stand Up to Cancer, and she leads a nonprofit organization, the Sherry Lansing Foundation.
The Chicago native and Northwestern graduate has the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award named after her. In 1974, she joined Talent Associates as an executive in charge of development. She joined MGM in 1975 as an executive story editor. She was appointed vice president in charge of production at Columbia in 1978, and later she was hired as President of 20th Century-Fox.
In 1984, she joined Stanley R. Jaffe to form the independent production company, named Jaffe-Lansing. When Jaffe was appointed president of Paramount Communications in 1990, Sherry became Chairman of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group.
