John Semel

Director General

John is a managing director at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York. He is an accomplished media executive with significant M&A experience. John’s breadth of experience spans digital media, education technology, social media, video gaming, film, cable and media technology.

Over the past 25 years John has been chief operating officer of Roar Social, a groundbreaking new platform in social media; chief strategy officer of Zovio (NASDAQ: ZVO), a leading provider of online education technology services; chief strategy officer of Mood Media, the largest global provider of in-store audio and visual solutions; EVP and chief strategy officer of John Wiley & Sons, where he acquired digital assets in online learning, software/SaaS and search-related companies; EVP business development at The Weinstein Company, where he invested in the relaunch of Ovation Networks cable channel and made several acquisitions; VP strategy and business development of MTV Networks; director of Hearst Ventures; SVP of investments US for eVerger; and vice president of Channel One Interactive, which was the largest in-school broadcasting network. John began his career as an associate at JP Morgan. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Brown University.