Tommy Mottola

About

Thomas Daniel Mottola (born July 14, 1948) is an American businessman, record executive and television producer. He is the chairman of Mottola Media Group and co-founder of Ntertain Studios. He served as chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, parent company of the Columbia label, for nearly 15 years. He signed and promoted singer Mariah Carey, to whom he was married for five years.
Since 2000, he has been married to Mexican actress/singer Thalía.

Mottola was born in the Bronx, New York City, to a middle-class Italian-American family. He graduated from Iona Grammar School in 1962 and Iona Prep in 1966. After a brief period in military school, he attended high school and later Hofstra University on Long Island. However, he dropped out of Hofstra to pursue a music career as a guitarist and singer with The Exotics, an R&B cover band.

Mottola entered the music industry in the mid-1960s as a recording artist for CBS Records, performing under the name “T.D. Valentine.” When his recording career did not achieve commercial success, he shifted into music management. He began working for Chappell Publishing, where he connected with various…