Chris Albrecht

Chris Albrecht (born July 24, 1952) is an American media executive. Albrecht is Chief Executive Officer and President of Starz. He is responsible for overseeing Starz Networks, Starz Distribution, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Worldwide Distribution, Starz Digital Media and Starz Animation. As of January 2013, Starz became an independent publicly traded company on the NASDAQ.

Albrecht is the former Chairman and CEO of HBO.He spent 22 years at HBO and was credited for ushering in the “Golden Age” of television with hit series such as “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Deadwood,” “Six Feet Under,” “Entourage,” “Band of Brothers” and “The Wire.” Albrecht founded Foresee Entertainment, an independent content creation, development and distribution company, in 2008. Albrecht was the president of IMG Global Media and IMG Entertainment, subsidiaries of the IMG production company, from September 2007 until August 2008. Albrecht was also a Special Limited Partner in Forstmann Little & Company.

On January 1, 2010 Albrecht joined Starz, LLC as its President and CEO. He oversees all of the Starz entities, including Starz Entertainment, Overture Films, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Film Roman. Starz, LLC, is a controlled subsidiary that operates Starz Media and Starz Entertainment. Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States with 17 movie channels including the flagship STARZ and STARZ ENCORE brands with approximately 24 million and 32 million subscribers respectively.

Two years after joining Starz, Albrecht and Liberty Media announced that it would spin-off Liberty Starz into a separate public company; the transaction included about $1.5 billion of debt. The spin-off of the subsidiary was expected to be completed by the end of 2012, but was actually completed on January 11, 2013. As a result of the spin-off, Liberty Starz changed its name to "Starz Inc." The new stock rose 9.8% on its first day of trading.

Albrecht's contract was renewed as CEO of Starz through 2020. The title of President was added effective July 1, 2016. On June 30, 2016, Lionsgate agreed to acquire Starz Inc. for $4.4 billion in cash and stock.

Mr. Albrecht holds a BA degree in dramatic literature from Hofstra University in New York.