In Role Reversal, a Top Corporate Exec at MCA Will Rejoin CAA

Historically, it’s been common for agents to cross to the corporate executive side of the entertainment business. Nearly two years ago, Creative Artists Agency’s founding partners Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer shocked Hollywood when they made their jump. One of their right-hand men, Sandy Climan, followed suit when Meyer offered him a top executive post at MCA (now known as Universal Studios Inc.).

On Monday, it was disclosed that Climan will do something much less common--leave the corporate side of the business and rejoin the agency ranks at CAA.

Climan, 41, will assume a role at CAA similar to the one he previously held there as a senior executive for more than a decade when he oversaw corporate finance and new business opportunities and served as a business advisor to such high-level clients as Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Sydney Pollack and Kevin Costner, who subsequently left the agency.

Climan worked closely with Ovitz on a number of corporate issues, including advising Matsushita on its MCA purchase and sale, Sony’s acquisition of Columbia Pictures, the formation of the Tele-TV venture with the regional phone companies, Credit Lyonnais’ ownership of MGM and CAA’s close ties with Microsoft.

Climan, who will rejoin CAA in the next few weeks, returns to a much-changed agency that is refocused on its core business of representing top talent.

CAA President Richard Lovett said the agency will take full advantage of Climan’s business acumen by having him “work closely with high-end clients and production companies,” help structure financing arrangements and explore new business opportunities.

“Sandy’s a uniquely talented guy who’s really smart about structuring financing deals and business strategies,” says Lovett. “He’s got great wisdom, vision and leadership skills.”

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While Climan will not be one of CAA’s managing director-owners, he will play a senior role in the agency, according to Lovett.

Climan said he jumped at the opportunity to return to CAA when Lovett proposed the idea.

He says it came down to a lifestyle decision, because his job at Universal required more traveling abroad than he had anticipated or wanted to do.

“The travel took me far away from my family for too long a period of time,” says Climan, who is married and has two children under the age of 5. Climan added that he is “very happy to return to a spirit of camaraderie and entrepreneurship that exists amongst my friends and clients at CAA.”

While this may be true, sources say the marriage between Climan and Universal, where he served as an executive vice president, didn’t pan out the way either side expected.

An executive at Universal says that ultimately there was an internal decision made that “the fit became less rewarding to both sides.”

Climan disputes that there was any disharmony, saying, “I love it here and it’s been great.”

In truth, Climan’s role at MCA/Universal had changed since being hired by Meyer to be his chief strategist and number cruncher, jobs at which the Harvard Business School graduate was proficient at CAA. As Universal began to take shape under its new ownership, and Frank Biondi Jr. was hired as chairman and chief executive officer, sources say Climan’s role narrowed.

“His charter changed,” said an insider. “He was being asked to be less the big-picture strategist and more a day-to-day line manager . . . it was a harder adjustment than anyone anticipated . . . it was more a stylistic difference.”

Sources say that while Climan is considered very bright and has a broad-based knowledge of the business, he wasn’t regarded as an effective line executive.

“He’s very bright and is a good mentor, but he is not a decision maker,” says one industry veteran who knows Climan. “Corporate life is about making decisions and, for better or worse, having to live with the results of those decisions, whereas in the agency world, it’s about giving advice to clients.”

Six months after he came aboard, Climan’s job was realigned. Under his newly added title of president, worldwide business development, he took on expanded responsibilities in the international arena with a mandate to formulate an overall global strategy and grow that part of the business for the company.

The home video division, which had been under his command, was moved to the motion picture group, in keeping with how other Hollywood studios are structured.

In addition to his expanded international duties, he also oversaw Pay TV and TV business development, consumer products, Spencer Gifts, strategic marketing and new media.

According to a Universal spokesperson, Pay TV/TV business development and international business development will now report to Biondi, and consumer products, Spencer Gifts, strategic marketing and new media will report to Executive Vice President Howard Weitzman, the company’s chief administrative officer.

During his tenure at the company, Climan is credited with having worked closely with Pay TV President Blair Westlake on a number of strategic international deals, including Universal’s agreement with the Kirch Group in Germany and its venture with Canal Plus in France.

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He also is credited with hiring a number of key division heads, including former Viacom executive Brian McGrath, who oversees the day-to-day operations of international business development; helping to reconstitute the consumer products group, which has expanded beyond licensing and merchandising activities to include the operation of retail stores; and reorganizing the new-media division.

Climan also was instrumental in bringing in the studio’s first co-financing deal, making a multiyear, multipicture pact with Beacon Communications.

Some industry insiders suggest that Climan might be more comfortable operating in a more entrepreneurial environment like CAA and that his return may be good timing for him and the agency.

“Sandy’s knowledge of the totality of the entertainment business should be very valuable to CAA at this transitional time,” says Tom Pollock, the former head of Universal Pictures. “Too many of the younger agents tend to focus on the deal of the moment and not where the business is going.”

Before joining CAA in 1986, Climan held various executive posts in Hollywood, including president of Lion’s Gate Studios, president of Wescom Prods. and production vice president at the David Gerber Co. He began his career at MGM.