Getting To Know Philippe Dauman, Sumner Redstone's Right-Hand Hatchetman
Sunday's LAT provides the world with the fascinating backstory of Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, the proudly uncool corporate kamikaze responsible for carrying out the public relations suicide missions Sumner Redstone dreams up while partially hypnotized by staring too intently at his collection of exotic fish, such as suing Google for copyright infringement, replacing a wildly popular executive, or blaspheming a Hollywood deity. But more impressive than the French-speaker's childhood language-acquisition skills (he learned English from Saturday morning cartoons!) and stunning promotion from kindergarten to Columbia Law School (there may have been a stop in college we're forgetting, but we don't have time to go back and double-check that part of the bio) is Dauman's uncanny ability to stay in the good graces of his notoriously prickly boss:
Dauman also is suspect because he holds the world record for getting along with Sumner M. Redstone, the crusty autocrat who built Viacom and looms Zeus-like from his hilltop mansion in Beverly Hills as executive chairman and lead shareholder of Viacom and its sister company, CBS Corp.
Cool or not, Dauman's 25-year relationship with Redstone, 84, is the key to his power at Viacom. It also increases the odds that he will be a force there after Redstone is gone.
Dauman once served as Redstone's personal lawyer and co-executor of his estate. He has been his strategist, secret agent, corporate troubleshooter, fellow board member and, now, top executive. With the circle around Redstone thinning because of ongoing conflict within his family, there may be no one closer to him than Dauman.
"He's very loyal, very hardworking, and suddenly, he's the last man standing," a New York media investor said.
Even as the "last man standing," the next couple of years will be crucial ones in determining Dauman's future in the Viacom empire. Once the matters of the Google lawsuit and Steven Spielberg's possible departure from the corporate family are finally settled, Redstone will decide whether to let his right-hand man drink of the ceremonial, jewel-encrusted chalice filled with his immortality-granting blood and rule with him for eternity, or to merely have his trusty CEO's brain transplanted into the skull of his favorite lap-cat, stroking him appreciatively until the natural end of the pet's life.
