SHERRY LANSING

Founder and CEO
Sherry Lansing Foundation
 
Sherry Lansing is the founder and current chair of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, a philanthropic organization focusing on cancer research, health and education. Ms. Lansing was the chair and CEO of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures from 1992 to 2005, where she oversaw the release of more than 200 films including Academy Award winners Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and Titanic (1997).  A pioneering studio executive, Lansing is the first woman in the film industry to oversee all aspects of a studio’s motion picture production.
 
Prior to overseeing the Paramount Motion Picture Group, Ms. Lansing headed her own production company, Lansing Productions, which produced Paramount Pictures’ Indecent Proposal.  Before that, during her partnership with Stanley Jaffe, formed in 1983, Jaffe/Lansing Productions produced a variety of groundbreaking films for Paramount, among them, The Accused, Black Rain, Fatal Attraction, Racing With the Moon and School Ties.  From 1980 to 1983, Ms. Lansing served as President of Production at 20th Century Fox.  She was the first woman to hold that position in the motion picture industry.  Prior to joining Fox, Ms. Lansing served as Senior Vice President at Columbia Pictures.
 
Lansing’s distinguished career has earned her numerous honors, including the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship, the Milestone Award from the Producers Guild of America, the Overcoming Obstacles Achievement Award for Business, the YWCA Silver Achievement Award, the Outstanding Woman in Business Award from the Women’s Equity Action League, the Distinguished Community Service Award from Brandeis University, the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Memorial Award and an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the American Film Institute. She was also the recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Distinguished Service Award for the Performing Arts and was named the 1996 Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of the Motion Picture Pioneers.  In 2004, Lansing received the Horatio Alger Humanitarian Award.  Most recently, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which was presented to her in 2007 at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. 
 
In December 2004, Lansing was appointed to the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  The CIRM was established by California’s groundbreaking ballot measure, Proposition 71, which provides for $3 billion in funding for embryonic stem cell research. Lansing serves as the patient advocate for Cancer, as well as the chair of the Governance Committee and co-chair of the Scientific and Medical Accountability Standards Working Group.
 
Additionally, Lansing serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Friends of Cancer Research and as a Trustee of the American Association for Cancer Research.  She also continues to lend her energy and talents to such advisory boards and committees as the American Red Cross Board of Governors, the board of trustees for the Carter Center and Stop Cancer, a non-profit philanthropic group she founded in partnership with Dr. Armand Hammer.  In addition, she is founder of the EnCorps Teachers Program, a public/private partnership which retrains retiring technology sector professionals to serve as California middle and high school science and math teachers.  Lansing is also a Regent of the University of California, serving as chair of the University Health Services Committee.
 
Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966.