CEO, Relativity Media
Age: 36
Industry: Media
Kavanaugh gained fame in Hollywood for raising billions from Wall Street to produce moneymaking hits like
Talladega Nights and
Zombieland. Now he's trying his hand as a studio head, turning Relativity into a full-blown studio that uses risk-assessment algorithms to try to pick moneymakers. His plan: to make profitable movies without the expensive overhead of older studios and their costly layers of business development. "The guys who run studios are my friends," he says, "but I'm saying, `Your business model is broken.' "
Next project: Producing Julia Roberts as the evil queen in
Snow White.
NEXT: Libby Wadle
