Rick Hess

Rick Hess is a founder and co-managing partner of Evolution Media Capital and manages Evolution Media Partners (EMP), an investment company created by EMC, TPG Growth and Participant Media, which partners globally in growth businesses within the sports, media and entertainment industries. EMC is a merchant bank formed in partnership with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and offers investment advisory, asset management, industry research, capital raising services and media rights advisory services.

Recent advisory transactions include EMC acting as sell-side advisor to The Mark Gordon Company in its sale to Entertainment One and acting as board advisor to Revolution Studios in the sale of Revolution’s film library to Fortress Investment Group. Recent investments include Scopely and Jaunt. EMP led Scopely’s Series A round and co-led Jaunt’s Series C round along with The Walt Disney Company and China Media Capital. Scopely is a fast-growing interactive entertainment network for mobile and tablet-first free-to-play games. Jaunt is a leading company in the virtual reality ecosystem and has developed a complete end-to-end platform for cinematic virtual reality.

Prior to EMC, Hess led the film finance group at CAA where he focused on the packaging and financing of feature films, as well as the structuring of film production and finance companies. He was previously president of Phoenix Pictures as well as president of Propaganda Films and held executive positions at Tristar Pictures.

Hess serves on the boards of Evolution Media Partners, Fred Segal, Scopely, Jaunt, Layer3 TV, and is the chairman of the board of Inner-City Filmmakers, a non-profit group aimed at helping low-income students procure jobs in the entertainment industry. He also serves on the board of directors for South Central Scholars, L.A.’s Promise and Chrysalis Enterprises, and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Hess is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and lives with his wife and three daughters in Monte Nido, Calif.