Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman.
Eisner was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was President and CEO of rival film studio Paramount Pictures from 1976 to 1984, and had brief stints at the major television networks NBC, CBS, and ABC.
Eisner was born to an affluent, secular Jewish family in Mount Kisco, New York. He was raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan. His mother, Margaret (née Dammann), whose family founded the American Safety Razor Company, was the president of the Irvington Institute, a hospital that treated children with rheumatic fever. His father, Lester Eisner, Jr., was a lawyer and regional administrator of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. His great-grandfather, Sigmund Eisner, established a very successful clothing company that was one of the first uniform suppliers to the Boy Scouts of America, and his great-grandmother, Bertha Weiss, belonged to an immigrant family that established the town of Red Bank, New Jersey.
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