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Rafael Pastor

Executive Committee, Fellowships Task Force

Rafael Pastor has an extensive and diversified track record in both running successful businesses and advising business leaders. His career has spanned the media/entertainment, education, and business/financial services sectors. He now serves on a variety of Boards and as an Advisor.

From 2004 to 2013, Rafael was Chairman of the Board and CEO of Vistage International, the world’s largest for-profit CEO membership company (which he co-owned with Larry Ellison, Michael Milken and Thomson Reuters).  Previously, based in New York, Rafael held these positions at global media companies: CEO of Hoyts Cinemas Corporation; President of USA Networks International; Executive Vice President, International, of News Corporation and Fox Television International (reporting to Rupert Murdoch); and President of CBS/Fox Video International. Subsequently, he was co-Founder and co-Chairman of the Sonenshine Pastor (now Sonenshine Partners) investment-banking firm in New York City.

Currently, Rafael serves as an Advisor to a major international private equity firm. He also serves on the Boards of KinderCare Education, Rosetta Books, and Assurance, as well as on the Advisory Boards of Julius, Thuzio, and MD Revolution. He is an investor in some of these companies.

Rafael is also engaged with not-for-profit organizations as: Chairman of the International Advisory Board of UC San Diego'’s School of Global Policy and Strategy; Vice Chairman of the Board of La Jolla Music Society; and Member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego, the Board of the National Association of Corporate Directors (Pacific Southwest Chapter), and the Strategic Roundtable of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation.

Rafael started his career as an attorney, first at the Wall Street law firm of Hawkins, Delafield and Wood and then as Associate General Counsel at CBS Inc. He earned a BA from Columbia University and a JD from NYU School of Law. He was born in Israel to Hungarian parents and speaks several languages. He and his wife, Marina, reside in Rancho Santa Fe, California.