Guy Primus was born in 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Primus is a 1987 graduate of Penn Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he earned a National Achievement scholarship. He earned his BS in Industrial Engineering from Georgia tech in 1992 and was president of the African American Student Union. He received his MS in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1995 and his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2000.
Career
After graduating from Georgia Tech with his master's degree, Primus started his career as at CAPS Logistics, a logistics software company started by his mentor and former professor, H. Donald Ratliff before becoming a consultant with A.T. Kearney in Alexandria, Virginia. Primus left Kearney in 1998 to pursue his MBA, and, upon graduating from Harvard Business School, he combined his passions of technology and media to start an online market research company called UrbanIQ, which later became the basis for Blue Flame Marketing + Advertising, the agency founded by entertainment mogul Sean Combs. After leaving Blue Flame, Primus joined Microsoft, where he became group product marketing manager for MSN Entertainment. There, he conceived "The Scenario" which was recognized as Best Branded Entertainment Experience at the 2005 ad:Tech awards. Primus then joined Starbucks as head of digital media for Starbucks Entertainment where he led the creation of the popular Pick of the Week program for Starbucks and Apple. Primus was then recruited to Overbrook Entertainment to aunch the company's digital media group. He eventually rose to the position of Chief Operating Officer, reporting directly to co-CEOs Will Smith and James Lassiter. While at Overbrook, Primus co-founded Tentpole Ventures, a seed-stage investment vehicle whose portfolio includes Pinterest and Dollar Shave Club. Primus left Overbrook in 2013 to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and co-founded The Core Venture Studio and The Collider co-working space before co-founding The Virtual Reality Company with Robert Stromberg, Chris Edwards and Joel Newton. He became CEO of VRC in the summer of 2015. At VRC, he served as an executive producer of The Martian VR, which won a Cannes Lions award, Raising a Rukus, which won a Lumiere Award, and Jurassic WorldVR Expedition, which was named as Best Location-Based VR Experience by UploadVR.
Personal life
Guy Primus is married to Heather Thompson Primus and the couple has two children, Grant and Clarke. He is a two time judge of the venture competition, He is also a member of the Television Academy. Primus assisted former Intel CEO Paul Otellini on the President's Jobs Council
