Robert W. Pittman is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iHeartMedia, Inc., a leading global media, digital and entertainment company which includes iHeartMedia, which has about a quarter of a billion monthly U.S. broadcast radio listeners and the largest reach of any radio or television outlet in America; about 90 million monthly digital uniques for iHeartMedia Digital including its record setting iHeartRadio; and over 190 million monthly consumers of its Total Traffic and Weather Network, and Clear Channel Outdoor, with over 750,000 displays in over 40 countries across five continents, including 48 of the largest markets in the United States. He is also a founding member of Pilot Group, LLC, a New York private investment firm.
Pittman is the co-founder and programmer who led the team that created MTV and has been CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Networks, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate, and Time Warner Enterprises. He was also COO of America Online, Inc. and later of AOL Time Warner.
Among many honors, Pittman received AdWeek’s first ‘Media Visionary’ award, was named to the Advertising Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. Pittman was also named one of Advertising Age\'s \"50 Pioneers and Visionaries of TV\" and \"10 Marketers Who Changed American Culture,” and has received the International Radio and Television Society\'s Gold Medal, the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award and a Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award. In addition, he was recognized as one of Life\'s \"Five Original Thinkers of the \'80s,” the eighth of Life Magazine’s “50 Most Influential Boomers,” and one of Time Magazine’s “Seven Others Who Succeeded” in their “1984 Man of the Year” issue.
Mr. Pittman began his career as a radio announcer in his native Mississippi and went on to successfully program a number of radio stations, including WNBC in New York, in his early 20\'s.