Tarak Ben Ammar
Tarak Ben Ammar, 59, was born in Tunisia to a prominent family, including his father who held several ministerial posts and his uncle, Habib Bourguiba, the first President of the Republic of Tunisia. Ben Ammar is a graduate of Georgetown University with a major in International Relations.
His started his career in 1977 with a major achievement: putting Tunisia on the map of the entertainment industry. Trough a company he created, Carthago, and studios he built, he convinced a number of U.S. producers to film parts of their projects in Tunisia and he participated in the production of international movies, including major blockbusters including George Lucas Star Wars and Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Having learned from such prestigious teachers the basics of filmmaking, he went on to produce or co-produce between 1980 and 1990 over 50 pictures, ranging from commercial French comedies to prestigious pictures such as Zeffirelli's La Traviata and Roman Polanski's Pirates.
After this first part of his career as a film producer, Ben Ammar decided to devote more time as an investor and a strategic adviser to major media players.
In 1990, he formed with Mr Silvio Berlusconi, whom he met in 1983, a company called Quinta Communications. Quinta has been used as a vehicle for a number of investments and as a production and distribution company. It released in France Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and has recently co-producing with Mr De Laurentiis three pictures for a total budget of $180 million (Decameron, Last Legion and Young Hannibal). The company also engaged in trading of audiovisual rights, acquired from U.S. producers and sold to European Broadcasters.
At the same time the group diversified its activities by building up a portfolio of strategic investments in the media services industry, including:
- The leading post production and printing lab in the French Market with the Thomson Group as a minority shareholder, and a strong minority position in Eclair, the other large French lab.
- A minority stake as a co-founder in the new company launched by the Weinsteins brothers after their separation with Disney.
- In association with TF1, a majority stake in two companies operating digital
terrestrial frequencies in Italy poised for very strong growth due to the latest
advances in the convergence.
- A minority participation in LuxVide, a company producing prestige fiction (Bible, John Paul IL Mother Theresa) In partnership with LuxVide, he built studios sets in the city of Hammamet replicating the ancient city of Rome.
- A controlling interest in the leading independent film distributor in Italy (Eagle SpA). This acquisition is the first step in the building of a pan European distribution system with prestigious partners such as Goldman Sachs, Murdoch and Bolloré group.
In addition, Mr Ben Ammar established close working relationships with a selected number of prominent International investors in the media industry.
In 1995, he advised Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal in his investments in Mediaset, and became a board member of Mr Berlusconi's media conglomerate, after its successful public offering. He continued advising Prince Al Waleed in other investments in News Corp and KirchGruppe.
He also advised Mr Murdoch in his European investments, including the German pay TV channel "Premiere". He orchestrated the acquisition of the Italian digital platform Stream from Telecom Italia and, two years later, the acquisition of Telepiù from Vivendi Universal.
In his first foray outside the media industry, Mr Ben Ammar recently helped Mr Bollore in protecting his investment in Mediobanca and Generali against a challenge by Italian investors. This successful negotiation earned him an appointment to the board of Mediobanca making him both the first individual from the Film and TV industry and the first non-westerner holding this position.
More recently, he has also been appointed to the Board of Telecom Italia.
Mr Ben Ammar was awarded the "Legion d'Honneur" in 1984 by President François
Mitterrand for his cultural contributions.
He has four children and resides in Paris.