Ross Levinsohn, the new CEO at Golden Entertainment, is an interesting case study of what it takes to be an effective leader. While his background and rise to power seem like they’ve been pretty textbook-like (from leading Sports Illustrated through its transition into a digital age to his tenure as CEO of Yahoo), he still has some common misconceptions about the position that have set him apart from his contemporaries.
About Ross Levinsohn
Ross Levinsohn was named publisher of the Los Angeles Times and executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005. In 2007 he became Sports Illustrated CEO and served in that role for four years, making him one of America’s most powerful media executives. During his tenure as CEO, SI reinvented its business model from print to digital and grew readership by more than 80 million.
After leaving Sports Illustrated CEO in 2011, he became CEO of Yahoo. Under his leadership, the company was able to turn around its business and become a legitimate player in the digital advertising space again. After just three years, Levinsohn could take Yahoo public once again.
A year later, he joined Blucora as its CEO and helped the company spin-off off one of its businesses, Infospace, to create a new public company called InfoSpace. The rest of Blucora remained private under a new name—CashStar—and Levinsohn was its CEO. A year later, CashStar merged with Aptimus to form the publicly traded iQor.
In 2015, he left Yahoo to become CEO of VK Investment Holding (VK), a European investment holding company that invests in and operates online media businesses. His appointment as CEO is the first time an American media executive has held such a position at VK. Before running VK, Levinsohn served as CEO of the Brooklyn Nets and on the board at Groupon.