{"id":83579,"date":"2023-11-12T04:53:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T09:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/ex-pixar-cfo-ann-mather-on-working-for-steve-jobs\/"},"modified":"2023-11-12T04:53:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T09:53:07","slug":"ex-pixar-cfo-ann-mather-on-working-for-steve-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=83579","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Pixar CFO Ann Mather on Working for Steve Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

You may not know who Ann Mather is, but you sure as heck know the companies where she\u2019s worked.<\/p>\n

Mather, 63, has been, and is, a top executive and\/or board member at some of Silicon Valley and Hollywood\u2019s most iconic names, including Alphabet (ticker: GOOG),
\n Netflix
\n (NFLX),
\n Airbnb
\n (ARNB), Disney (DIS), Pixar, and MGM, as well as
\n Bumble
\n (BMBL) where she is chair of the board of directors. Along the way she reported to and collaborated with the likes of Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Reed Hastings, Brian Chesky, \u201cCoach\u201d Bill Campbell and Steve Jobs\u2014making her a sort of media-tech Zelig.<\/p>\n

\n

As if that wasn\u2019t singular enough, Mather (rhymes with Dan Rather), is British born and Cambridge educated and rose through the ranks first as an accountant and financial type, but is now called on for her strategic perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Technology and media are complementary businesses of course. On the other hand, they\u2019re also often at odds with each other. Mather has worked at the nexus of the two for decades, and so I asked her how she would describe that dynamic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone can become complacent and think that they know what\u2019s going to be happening,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the things I love about [Netflix co-founder] Reed Hastings. He is super focused on Netflix, as are the current CEOs, Ted\u00a0[Sarandis] and Greg [Peters], on what\u2019s happening next, what the potential\u2014threats is too strong a word\u2014competition for eyeballs are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s evolving organically. I think it will potentially affect our lives in a very positive way. I don\u2019t think theaters are going to go away completely. I think it\u2019s fascinating what Taylor Swift is doing. I could totally see [theaters] becoming more significant venues for live sports events, concerts, summaries of concert tours, like Taylor\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

I did the interview with Mather before word came out that Bumble was naming Lidiane Jones, currently CEO of Slack\u2014owned by
\n Salesforce
\n (CRM)\u2014to become its new CEO, succeeding Whitney Wolfe Herd, who becomes executive chairman. \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled about Lidiane joining and also thrilled about Whitney in her new role as executive chairman,\u201d Mather told me on Thursday, when I reached out to ask about the news. \u201cWhitney was actually the person who found Lidiane.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will AI change platforms like Bumble?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it gives everyone a fantastic opportunity to develop their own creative selves. In an app like Bumble, we\u2019re super excited, as it allows us the potential to create a very personalized profile very easily. AI can find out just a little bit about you, and we can make it very easy with prompts. It can help select which photos are most likely to attract the right person. It\u2019s going to be particularly relevant for men\u2019s profiles, frankly. Too many with dead fish that don\u2019t necessarily work well. \u201c<\/p>\n

Mather worked at Pixar (now owned by Disney) as CFO when
\n Apple
\n co-founder Steve Jobs was running the animation company. What was that like, I wondered?<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it,\u201d Mather said. \u201cFrankly, no question Steve felt he added value by critiquing wherever he could. And I respect that. I don\u2019t have a problem with someone who likes to look for as many holes as possible in situations. I think that is where much value is added to try to look for what could go wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs CFO I was responsible largely for distribution as well. We were distributed by Disney at the time. There were many issues at that point in time. Disney was a different operation than it is now, and frankly, there were times when we really weren\u2019t getting a fair deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d strategize together, but usually with Steve if I had something that I felt was important for Pixar to move forward with, I put all of my arguments\u2026on a piece of paper and pre-anticipate what he would say, with the holes he would pick and put down some mitigating responses. [I would] usually email him right before dinner. He\u2019d take six o\u2019clock to eight o\u2019clock every night to have dinner with his family. And then at eight o\u2019clock, he\u2019d call me. And we\u2019d go through the list. And usually if I presented it properly, it was a very smooth and easy call. And we\u2019d get done really quickly. If I tried to have a conversation explaining that, it was difficult, Steve\u2019s so fast in the way he responds and the things he thinks of, it can be challenging to get back as quickly as he is getting back to you. So there was a way of working with Steve that I personally loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

It makes you wonder what Jobs would make of today\u2019s tech\/media landscape, and how he would play it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Write to Andy Serwer at andy.serwer@barrons.com<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may not know who Ann Mather is, but you sure as heck know the companies where she\u2019s worked. Mather, 63, has been, and is, a top executive and\/or board member at some of Silicon Valley and Hollywood\u2019s most iconic names, including Alphabet (ticker: GOOG), Netflix (NFLX), Airbnb (ARNB), Disney (DIS), Pixar, and MGM, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-83579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"\nEx-Pixar CFO Ann Mather on Working for Steve Jobs | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You may not know who Ann Mather is, but you sure as heck know the companies where she\u2019s worked. 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