73. The Overseer

John Hendricks
Founder/Chairman: Discovery Communications
Age: 54
Last Year: NR

Why Him? The Discovery ship has undergone some major alterations this year—not the least of which was the Nov announcement that NBC Universal's David Zaslav would take Judith McHale's pres/CEO spot. Though Zaslav won't need hand-holding, Hendricks may still find himself more involved than he was in the McHale's auto-pilot days, at least until Zaslav gets his sea legs. For that reason, we're bringing Hendricks back into the 100. With the resignations of McHale and more recently senior evp, strategy and development Don Baer, it seemed for a bit as if Hendricks might step back into the CEO role. But it's safe to assume cable's favorite programming pioneer (well, maybe second favorite next to the very entertaining Ted Turner) will let Zaslav work his magic. As Hendricks told sister pub CableWorld recently, he's quite content to remain non-executive chairman and leave the nitty-gritty to someone else. Still, we were all kind of intrigued at the short-lived prospects of a Hendricks return to the helm. It almost felt like old times again. - CH, MG

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