An updating tally of attendees jetting in to the annual Allen & Co. conference in Idaho.
Moguls gather annually for Allen & Co.’s event in Sun Valley,
Idaho; venues include the Sun Valley Lodge (above).
Lodge: Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Dealmakers: Oxinoxi/Stock.adobe.com
Welcome back to the OG billionaires’ retreat. Each July, executives disembark off private jets in Idaho for investment banker Herb Allen’s exclusive “summer camp for moguls” in Sun Valley. The Allen & Co event, held July 7-11 this year, was once free of reporters but now is more like an annual chase for crumbs of news among journalists on-site. (It’s always a good bet that People Inc mogul Barry Diller will deliver the most quotable lines to press annually.)
The conference founded by the 86-year-old mogul used to stand out as one of the premier gatherings in what’s now called the thought-leader business that counts everything from Davos in Switzerland to the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado to Jeff Bezos’ annual Campfire retreats for VIPs. And that list is only growing as more businesses aim to cater to the narrowest slice of the ultra-rich, invite-only class.
In other words, there may be less mystique to this moguls’ confab when, increasingly, there’s many more stops for the Masters of the Universe to jet off too each year. But, given that there are photojournalists on standby, being at the Allen & Co. conference also serves an optics purpose. It’s a place where execs — name tag and sunglasses on, to-go coffee cup in hand — can be seen. That, too, tells a story of power and who holds it now.
Here’s a running tally of the Hollywood attendees this year at Sun Valley:
Neal Mohan
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images YouTube CEO Neal Mohan may arguably be leading the media universe, with the video platform not only becoming a go-to destination on computers and mobile devices but increasing its market share of TV time, too.
Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images After formally handing over the keys to the Disney castle to Josh D’Amaro, his successor, in March, Bob Iger rejoined Josh Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive Capital in April.
Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and protégé Mike Cavanagh revealed their big deal days before jetting off to Allen & Co. The moguls unveiled a plan to spin off NBCUniversal from Comcast into a separately traded public company run by Cavanagh.
Ted Sarandos
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images The Allen & Co. conference used to have a reputation for being an event where massive deals were first contemplated given that many titans of industry are all in the same place. It’s unclear whether Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, after chasing Warner Bros. for a period last year, is looking to make another major swing.
David Zaslav
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images David Zaslav sparked a bidding war that led to the $111 billion dollar agreement to sell Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount mogul David Ellison. In the process, his Warner sale pay day has been estimated at $886 million.
Barry Diller
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Fresh off an $18 billion bid to take over MGM Resorts that was unveiled early in June, People Inc mogul Barry Diller is back and bicycling in Sun Valley as the Allen & Co. conference begins.
Jerry Yang
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Billionaire Jerry Yang, the ex-CEO and co-founder of Yahoo!, has been an Allen & Co. regular for well over a decade.
Bret Taylor
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images The OpenAI contingent this year at the Allen & Co. conference includes chairman Bret Taylor.
Mary Barra
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, has served on the board of directors of Disney since 2017 through the Bob Iger, Bob Chapek and Josh D’Amaro CEO eras at the entertainment giant.
Michael Eisner
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, is another longtime regular at the Allen & Co event. The mogul’s foundation also has backed another thought-leader conference, donating $4 million last year to the Aspen Institute to build a new class of arts leaders.
Rob Manfred
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred presides over the growth of the baseball league, which has branched out into streaming rights deals with the likes of Netflix in addition to partners like NBC and ESPN.
John Henry
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images In addition to owning the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club, mogul John Henry also has a collection of media properties including The Boston Globe.
Wendi Murdoch
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Wendi Murdoch, the entrepreneur who divorced from media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2013, has been a longtime attendee of the Allen & Co. conference over the last two decades.
Brian Grazer
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, who runs the company with co-founder Ron Howard, has been a regular presence at the Sun Valley retreat over the years.
Bobby Kotick
Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Bobby Kotick, who led Activision Blizzard ahead of the $69 billion deal by Microsoft to acquire the video game giant, has yet to take another C-suite role but sits on multiple non-profit boards.
