Kay Koplovitz


Kay Koplovitz founded the USA Network, and served as it chairwoman & CEO from its founding in 1977 until 1998 when it was sold for $4.5 billion. Kay is the first woman ever to head a television network as the founder and former CEO of USA Networks. She is also the author of Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning to Play the High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game. She more recently published "Been There, Run That," an anthology of best practices from Springboard Enterprises’ expert network of thought leaders.

Early life, education

Kay Koplovitz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in communications and earned a master's degree in communications from Michigan State University. She is married to private investor William C. Koplovitz, Jr.

Career

USA Networks

Koplovitz founded the USA Network in 1977 as an all-sports service, known as the Madison Square Garden Sports Network ; the channel was renamed the USA Network in 1980. USA would eventually become the number one ranking cable network in primetime viewership for 13 consecutive years. Under her leadership, the SyFy Channel was launched in 1992 and USA Network International was launched in 1994, operating in countries around the world. Koplovitz is also credited for creating the concept for two revenue streams of licensing and advertising. She served as chairman and chief executive officer until 1998, when it was sold for $4.5 billion and it became a publicly listed company.

Springboard Enterprises, Springboard Growth Capital, Koplovitz & Company

In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed Koplovitz to chair the bipartisan National Women's Business Council. This helped create a platform for her to Co-Found Springboard Enterprises in 2000. Springboard is a non-profit organization fostering venture capital investments in women-led high growth companies and has raised over $10.3 billion and created over 10,000 jobs since its inception.
Since 2000, Kay has served as Chairman of Springboard Enterprises, where under her leadership, the accelerator has been bringing women founders leading transformational businesses to full parity in raising capital and building scalable, sustainable companies.
In 2016, Kay co-founded Springboard Growth Capital to bring growth stage investments to technology and life sciences companies emerging from Springboard Enterprises ecosystem.
In 1998, Koplovitz & Company LLC was established to provide advisory services to entertainment companies, sports organizations, advertisers and distributors. It advises companies on growth strategies and the firm makes investments in early and mid-stage companies in media and technology.

Board memberships

Koplovitz currently serves on the board of ION Media, Veniam, and The International Hall of Fame. She previously served as chairman of the board of Kate Spade formerly Liz Claiborne, from January 2007 until May 2013. She also previously served as a board member of CA Technologies,Time Inc., Instinet, Oracle, Nabisco and General Re. Sun New Media and a trustee of The Paley Center for Media.
In April 2014, it was announced that Kay Koplovitz would sit on the 10-member board of Time Inc., the publishing arm of Time Warner Inc..

Awards and honors

Koplovitz holds honorary doctorate degrees from Emerson College, St. John's University, Michigan State University and Canisius College.
Other honors and awards she has received include the following: