Robert Marc Bakish ( ; born December 14, 1963) is an American business executive. He has been President and CEO of Paramount Global since December 4, 2019, formerly holding the same position at Viacom before the merger with CBS Corporation. Early life and education A native of New Jersey, Bakish attended Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, graduating in 1981. He received a Bachelor of Science in operations research in 1985 from Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. He earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1989. After receiving his MBA, Bakish joined the management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in 1990, and rose to become a partner in its media and entertainment practice. Career at Paramount Early positions In February 1997, Bakish joined Viacom. Initially as Vice President of Planning and Development, he became Senior Vice President of Planning, Development and Technology in January 1998. In October 1999, he became the Executive Vice President of Planning and Business Development of Viacom's subsidiary MTV Networks. From 2001 through 2004, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of advertising sales at MTV Networks. In 2004, he was appointed Executive Vice President of Operations of Viacom, Inc., and in 2006 he was also appointed Executive Vice President of Viacom Enterprises. In these two positions, he was responsible for Viacom's strategic planning and business development plus oversight of a range of business units including Famous Music, Famous Players, Viacom Plus sales and information services and technology, as well as heading Viacom's cross-divisional marketing council. Head of international operations In January 2007 Bakish became President of MTV Networks International (MTVNI), with financial and management responsibility for MTVNI, overseeing all MTV Networks operations outside the U.S. He immediately restructured MTVNI, cutting 8% of the workforce in addition to merging some overseas units with the UK business and devolving responsibilities for Latin American operations to new offices across the region. He launched the popular Colors franchise of networks via the Viacom18 joint venture in the high-growth market of India. MTVNI had double-digit, year-on-year growth during his tenure. When MTVNI CEO Bill Roedy resigned in January 2011, Bakish was promoted to the newly created position of President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN). This promotion included responsibility for all Viacom media networks and operations internationally, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, VH1, VIVA, TMF, Game One and MTV