Michael Eisner

Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.

Early life

Eisner was born to an affluent, secular Jewish family in Mount Kisco, New York. His mother, Margaret (née Dammann), whose family founded the American Safety Razor Company, was the president of the Irvington Institute, a hospital that treated children with rheumatic fever. His father, Lester Eisner, Jr., was a lawyer and regional administrator of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. His great-grandfather,Sigmund Eisner, established a very successful clothing company that was one of the first uniform suppliers to the Boy Scouts of America and his great-grandmother, Bertha Weiss, belonged to an immigrant family that established the town of Red Bank, New Jersey. His parents were both descendents of German Jewish immigrants and Eisner had 16 relatives who were killed in the Holocaust.

He was raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan. He attended the Allen-Stevenson School kindergarten through ninth grade followed by The Lawrenceville School in 10th through his senior year and graduated from Denison University in 1964 with a B.A. in English. He is a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and credits much of his accomplishments to his time at Keewaydin Canoe Camp for boys in Vermont. Eisner has one sister, Margot Freedman.