Craig Kallman is an American entrepreneur and former DJ. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records. His career in music began in the 1980s as a DJ in Manhattan. He is the founder of the independent label Big Beat, which was established in 1986. Later, the label was purchased by Atlantic, where he has worked since 1991. After the acquisition, Kallman subsequently become its CEO in 2005. Kallman is considered one of the world's leading investors in rare records. He has a collection of approximately 750,000 records, 150,000 items of music memorabilia and 100,000 compact discs. Early life and education Kallman was born in Manhattan, New York City in 1965. His father had an eclectic record collection that exposed him to a wide variety of music. Kallman began collecting records at an early age, traveling from record store to record store in New York City; something that became a weekend job, even until today. He attended Trinity High School before moving on to Brown University. He pursued a liberal arts degree and graduated magna cum laude in 1987. Kallman had plans to enroll in Harvard Business School but decided to pursue a career in the music industry. Career 1980s, DJ career and Big Beat Kallman's music career began while he was still in high school. He worked in the dance department at Columbia Records, while DJing at nightclubs in New York City. He struck a deal with his father to DJ on weeknights as long as he maintained honors in school. From the early to mid-1980s, he held several DJ residencies including at Danceteria, Area, and The Palladium. During his time at Brown, he was a representative for CBS Records, and programmed urban and rock specialty shows for WBRU-FM. He began working for Factory Records after graduation. He also spent time at Billboard Magazine working in its charts department, while performing as a resident DJ at such clubs as The Tunnel and Mars spinning records from his extensive record collection. In 1987, Kallman formed his own independent record label, Big Beat Records out of his bedroom with the label's first artist, Taravhonty. He distributed this first single, "Join Hands" out of a supermarket shopping cart personally selling over 5,000 copies to independent local record stores. For the second release, "The Party" by Kraze, Kallman sold the records out of the trunk of his father's car driving throughout