Jack Valenti Bio

Jack Valenti is the president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. He has published four books (three nonfiction), and has written for a number of newspapers including the New York Times and The Washington Post.

In 1952, Valenti co-founded the advertising and political consulting agency of Weekley & Valenti. It was only three years later that he would meet the man who would have the largest impact on his life, the then-Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson. Within hours of the murder of John F. Kennedy, Valenti was on Air Force One en route to Washington D.C., the first newly hired special assistant to the new president.

Valenti was born in Houston, and at 15 years of age was the city's youngest high school graduate. As a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Valenti flew 51 combat missions. He earned a B.A. from the University of Texas and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.