John C. Malone (born March 7, 1941) is an American business executive, landowner and philanthropist. He served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a cable and media giant, for twenty-four years from 1973 to 1996. Malone is now chairman of Liberty Media, Liberty Global, and Liberty Interactive all which he is the majority owner, and also owns 10% of Lionsgate/Starz Inc. and 29% of Discovery Communications. He was interim CEO of Liberty Media, until succeeded by former Oracle CFO Greg Maffei.
Early life and education
John C. Malone was born on March 7, 1941 in Milford, Connecticut. His father was Daniel L. Malone, an engineer. Malone is of Irish heritage.
In 1959, Malone graduated from Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1963, he graduated at Yale University with a BA in electrical engineering and economics, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa and National Merit scholar. In 1964, Malone graduated at Johns Hopkins University with a MS in industrial management. He also received a MS in electrical engineering at an NYU program at Bell Labs in 1965 before receiving his PhD in operations research at Johns Hopkins in 1967.
Business career
In 1963, Malone began his business career at Bell Telephone Laboratories of AT&T, working in economic planning and research and development. In 1968, he joined McKinsey & Company, and in 1970, became Group Vice President at General Instrument Corporation (GI). He was later named President of Jerrold Electronics, a GI subsidiary. For twenty-four years, from 1973 to 1996, Malone served as President and CEO of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI).
Malone serves on the Boards of Directors for the Bank of New York Mellon, the Cato Institute, and Expedia.com. Additionally, Malone is Chairman Emeritus of the Board for Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. and Chairman of Liberty Global, Inc., and the DirecTV Group. His rise to Chairman at Liberty Global, Inc., was contentious at times. In 2005, John Malone held 32 percent of the shares in the media company News Corporation, and although only about half of these shares were voting shares, Rupert Murdoch reportedly had concerns that he might lose the control of his company to Malone, and tried to oust him from the firm with a “poison pill” strategy. He served as Director of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) from 1974 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1993. During the 1977–1978 term, Malone was the NCTA’s Treasurer.
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