Janet Yang Elected Motion Picture Academy President

Pete Hammond
·2 min read
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Producer Janet Yang has been elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the organization’s Board of Governors at a meeting held Tuesday.

She replaces David Rubin, who has served as president for the past three years but has termed out because he has reached the end of the maximum number of years he can serve on the board without taking a hiatus, per Academy rules.

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Yang’s victory comes as no surprise since she had been the key name floated for the position in recent weeks and was honored at the Academy Museum earlier this summer.

“Janet is a tremendously dedicated and strategic leader who has an incredible record of service at the Academy,” AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement. “She has been instrumental in launching and elevating several Academy initiatives on membership recruitment, governance, and equity, diversity, and inclusion. I am thrilled that she is taking on the esteemed role of Academy President and look forward to working closely with her on our shared vision to serve our membership, celebrate the collaborative arts and sciences of motion pictures, and inspire the next generation of filmmakers.”

The board also voted for key other elected positions today and they are:

Teri E. Dorman, Vice President (chair, Membership Committee)
Donna Gigliotti, Vice President/Secretary (chair, Governance Committee)
Lynette Howell Taylor, Vice President (chair, Awards Committee)
Larry Karaszewski, Vice President (chair, History and Preservation Committee)
David Linde, Vice President/Treasurer (chair, Finance Committee)
Isis Mussenden, Vice President (chair, Museum Committee)
Kim Taylor-Coleman, Vice President (chair, Equity and Inclusion Committee)
Wynn P. Thomas, Vice President (chair, Education and Outreach Committee)

Yang is beginning her first term as president and her second term as a Governor-at-Large, a position for which she was nominated by the sitting Academy president and elected by the Board of Governors.  Gigliotti, Karaszewski, Linde, Mussenden and Thomas were re-elected as officers. It will be the first officer stint for Dorman, Howell Taylor and Taylor-Coleman.

Yang’s extensive film producing credits include The Joy Luck Club, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Zero Effect, Shanghai Calling and the Oscar-nominated animated feature Over the Moon. She won an Emmy for the HBO film Indictment: The McMartin Trial. A member of the Academy’s Producers Branch since 2002, Yang most recently served on the board as vice president and chair of the Membership Committee and prior to that, the Membership and Governance Committee.  She is also co-chair of the Academy’s Asian Affinity Group.

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