Ep 20: Ken Kragen
Ken Kragen | Co-CEO, Good Hands Productions
An MBA Graduate of Harvard Business School, Ken Kragen’s distinguished career transcends the music and entertainment industries. He has successfully managed some of the world's most important entertainers, including Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Trisha Yearwood, Olivia Newton-John, The Bee Gees, The Smothers Brothers and many others. During the past few years, while still producing for television, he has devoted an increasing amount of his time to consulting work for leading corporations and nonprofits in the United States.
His belief that “It’s much easier to do the impossible than the ordinary” has enabled him to organize an historic recording in just 28 days to fight starvation in Africa, “We are the World”; create an organization to allocate those funds to do the maximum good in Africa with an overhead of only 7%, “USA for Africa”; put a continuous line of five million people together holding hands from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean raising funds and awareness for poverty in the U.S., “Hands Across America”; and stage an unprecedented global charity event merging Cisco System’s technology with the United Nations’ war on poverty, “Netaid”. He also played a role in the original LiveAid and, with his wife Cathy Worthington, helped found and has given ongoing support to the incredibly successful, Los Angeles-based charity, PATH (People Assisting the Homeless).
For his work, Mr. Kragen has been honored with the United Nations Peace Medal. He has been recognized by the NAACP, the Los Angeles Advertising Women, and the Boys and Girls Club of America. He received two MTV Awards, An American Music Award, several Emmy nominations, and EBONY's American Black Achievement Award. He is the only individual ever elected President of both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music. He was selected Alumnus of the Year at the University of California, Berkeley. He also recently received the International Citizen’s Award from the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles and was inducted into The Personal Managers Hall of Fame.
During his career Mr. Kragen has produced a variety of film and television projects, ranging from the ground-breaking "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on CBS to Kenny Rogers' "Gambler" movies, and numerous highly-rated series, mini-series and successful films. With his friend Quincy Jones he produced a portion of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration of William Clinton.
In 2004 Kragen produced the "12 Dogs of Christmas" based on his daughter's, Emma's, best-selling children's book. (www.12DogsofChristmas.com) In 2012 he did a live-action sequel for Sony Pictures.
In recent years Ken Kragen has worked for The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; helped put together a National Anti-Bullying Campaign; created a major fundraising campaign for the California Community College Foundation; and spent two years working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA on a part of the Juno spacecraft exploration of Jupiter.
Mr. Kragen is the author of the best-selling book "Life is a Contact Sport." He is a sought-after professional speaker and he has lectured at USC, University of Tennessee, Harvard, and has frequently taught a large, sold-out career course at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. Ken lives in Southern California with his wife Cathy. His daughter, Emma, is a successful cinematographer and filmmaker.
