Ted Turner
Robert Edward Turner - III,
Philanthropist, Chairman of the United Nations Foundation (United States)
Ted Turner is Chairman of the Turner Foundation, Inc., which supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing a sustainable energy future to protect our climate, safeguarding environmental health, maintaining wildlife habitat protection, and developing practices and policies to curb population growth rates.
He is also Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which works to close the growing and increasingly dangerous gap between the threat from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and Chairman of the United Nations Foundation, which promotes a more peaceful, prosperous and just world. He is a partner in the Ted's Montana Grill restaurant chain, which operates more than 55 locations nationwide.
Turner is also Chairman of Turner Enterprises, Inc., a private company, which manages his business interests, land holdings and investments, including the oversight of two million acres in 12 states and in Argentina, and more than 50,000 bison head.
Turner began his career as an account executive with Turner Advertising Company and entered the television business in 1970 when he acquired Atlanta independent UHF station channel 17. In 1976, Turner purchased Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves and launched TBS Superstation, originating the "Superstation" concept. The following year, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. acquired the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks, and in 1980 Turner launched CNN, the world's first live, 24-hour global news network.
Throughout his career, Turner has received recognition for his entrepreneurial acumen, sharp business skills, leadership qualities, and his philanthropy.
