Joel Hyatt
Joel Z. Hyatt | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joel Hyatt Zylberberg May 6, 1950 |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, former political figure, entrepreneur, professor |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Known for | Founder of Hyatt Legal Services; co-creator of Current TV; CEO of Globality Inc. |
Joel Z. Hyatt (originally named Joel Hyatt Zylberberg; born May 6, 1950) is an American businessman and former political figure. He established Hyatt Legal Services and gained national recognition through the company’s television advertisements featuring the catchphrase, "I'm Joel Hyatt and you have my word on it." Additionally, Hyatt co-created Current TV.
Life and career
Hyatt earned degrees from Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, subsequently practicing law briefly at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In 1977, he launched Hyatt Legal Services with the goal of delivering affordable legal assistance to middle- and lower-income Americans. He later introduced Hyatt Legal Plans, which was among the first to offer employer-sponsored group legal benefits. This division was purchased by MetLife in 1997.
In the political arena, Hyatt was instrumental in founding the U.S. Senate Democratic Leadership Circle (1981–1986) and held the position of assistant treasurer for the Democratic National Committee from 1981 to 1983. He is married into the family of former Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum and managed Metzenbaum’s initial two Senate campaigns. In 1994, Hyatt sought election to the U.S. Senate but was defeated by Republican Michael DeWine amid a broader Republican electoral surge.
In a notable legal matter in 1990, Hyatt Legal Services agreed to a $157,000 settlement after unlawfully terminating an attorney due to an AIDS diagnosis—a case that inspired the film Philadelphia. Hyatt publicly expressed regret regarding his firm's role in this incident.
Governor Gray Davis appointed Hyatt to the California Public Utilities Commission in 1999; however, he resigned after serving six months. He also acted as National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party in 2000.
In collaboration with former Vice President Al Gore, Hyatt acquired Newsworld International in 2004 and rebranded it as Current TV in 2005—a channel aimed at younger viewers emphasizing user-generated content. The pair sold Current TV to Al Jazeera Media Network in 2013 for around $500 million. The following year, Hyatt and Gore filed a lawsuit against Al Jazeera concerning unpaid residuals; Al Jazeera contested these claims.
Academically, Hyatt has taught entrepreneurship courses at both Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School between 1998 and 2003. His board memberships include institutions such as Morehouse College, The Brookings Institution, Hewlett-Packard, and The RAND Corporation. He is also affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Stanford Hospital.
Hyatt led VideoSurf, a computer vision search technology company that Microsoft acquired in 2011.
Presently, Hyatt is CEO of Globality Inc, an AI-powered B2B services marketplace headquartered in Menlo Park, which he co-founded with Lior Delgo in 2015. At its inception, Globality onboarded 350 advertising agencies. In 2019, the company secured a $100 million investment from SoftBank.
Books
- The Long Boom: A History of the World's Future, 1980-2020, authored by Peter Schwartz, Peter Leyden, and Joel Hyatt (Basic Books, 2000)
External links
- 1950 births
- 20th-century American Jews
- 20th-century American lawyers
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American businesspeople
- American corporate directors
- California Democrats
- Candidates in the 1994 United States elections
- Dartmouth College alumni
- Hewlett-Packard people
- American philanthropists
- Living people
- Ohio Democrats
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people
- Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty
- Yale Law School alumni