Katzenberg to keynote at Banff

Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks co-founder and managing partner at investment outfit WndrCo, will deliver a keynote address at the Banff World Media Festival later this year.

Katzenberg’s WndrCo is behind new high-profile mobile-first VoD platform Quibi, which has been backed by companies including ITV and Liberty Global.

Jeffrey Katzenberg

He will speak on Sunday June 9 in a fireside conversation that will kick off the 40th edition of the festival, which will take place from June 9 to 12 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

“Jeffrey’s well-earned reputation as a world-class content leader presents such an exciting opportunity for all of us attending the Banff World Media Festival,” said Randy Lennox, chair of the board of directors at Banff.

Jenn Kuzmyk, the festival’s executive director, added that Katzenberg’s “monumental career and ability to sense what’s next makes him an ideal speaker to launch the new Banff Summit Series, which will examine our industry’s most important and pressing issues.”

The Banff Summit Series is a curated, future-focused line-up of keynote sessions being launched to mark the festival’s 40th anniversary, featuring speakers from around the world who are shaping the future of the media industry.

Katzenberg served as president of production at Paramount Studios before becoming chairman of Walt Disney Studios, working on shows such as The Little Mermaid. In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks and was behind shows including Shrek and Madagascar. DreamWorks Animation was sold to Comcast in 2016 for US$3.8bn.