Founding-dean Gil Cates one of Variety's top "Dealmakers"

Published: Wed Sep 24, 2008 (updated Fri Nov 7, 2008) in Press

Trade paper's special "Impact Report" notes his key role in DGA labor negotiations with the studios

The School's founding dean, professor Gil Cates, has been named one of Hollywood's top dealmakers of 2008 in a special issue of the trade paper Daily Variety.

Cates is singled out in the report for the pivotal role he played, as chair of the Directors Guild of America's negotiating committee, during the DGA's contract talks with the major studios in January.

The talks would have been challenging in any circumstance, because for the first time the DGA contract had to address the growing world of new media.

But as the DGA went to the bargaining table, the Writers Guild of America had been on strike for more than two months. The pressure was on Cates and Co. to come up with a compensation formula that would satisfy directors and help end the WGA standoff.

The DGA succeeded, in Cates’ view, because it was armed with detailed studies of the nascent new-media marketplace and because of the reservoir of good will between those on both sides of the table.