Kevin A. Mayer (born 1962) is an American business executive who is the co-founder and co-CEO of Candle Media, alongside Thomas O. Staggs, the former COO and CFO of The Walt Disney Company. Backed by Blackstone Inc., Candle Media acquired Hello Sunshine (founded by Reese Witherspoon) for $900 million, Moonbug Entertainment (the producer of CoCoMelon) for $3 billion, 10% of Westbrook (founded by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith) for $60 million, and ATTN: for $100 million. Mayer previously served as the CEO of TikTok and the COO of its parent company ByteDance Ltd. Prior to joining TikTok, Mayer was Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer at Disney, where he was responsible for launching Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu+. Kevin managed over 25,000 employees around the world and over 60% of Disney revenues. He was also the Chief Strategy Officer of Disney, and led the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox. In addition to his role at Candle Media, Kevin serves as Chairman of DAZN Group and a co-founder and Managing Partner at Smash Capital, a growth stage venture capital firms with investments in Epic Games and Manscaped. He sits on the board of directors of Nexon, and is an advisor to David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery, Len Blavatnik of Access Industries, and Marc Benioff of Salesforce. Early life and education Mayer earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a master of science in electrical engineering from San Diego State University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School. Business career In 1993, Mayer began working at The Walt Disney Company handling strategy and business development for Disney's Interactive/Internet and television businesses worldwide. He was later promoted to head the Disney Internet group as executive vice president. Mayer was then named Chief Executive Officer of Playboy.com, the digital subsidiary of Chicago's Playboy Enterprises in February 2000. In September 2000, Mayer left Playboy and was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Interactive, a division of Clear Channel Worldwide. He served in that position until December 2001. He joined L.E.K. Consulting as a partner and head of the global media and entertainment practice in February 2002. Mayer rejoined Disney as Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Business Development, and Technology in June 2005, then was designated in October 2005 as an executive officer. Mayer was involved with the purchases of