Leo Hindery

Leo J. Hindery Jr. is a serial entrepreneur, fund manager, former public-company chairman and CEO, author, political activist and philanthropist.

Mr. Hindery served as chairman and CEO of Trine Acquisition Corp., a NYSE-listed SPAC which went public in March 2019 and went effective with its merger with Desktop Metal, Inc. (NYSE: DM) in early 2021, and of a follow-on NYSE-listed SPAC under the Trine name that went public in the third quarter of 2021 and returned funds to its public investors in the second quarter of 2023.

In 1988, Hindery founded and ran as managing partner InterMedia Partners, a series of media industry investment funds. In November 1999, Hindery was named chairman and CEO of GlobalCenter Inc., a major Internet services company which fourteen months later merged into Exodus Communications, Inc.

Following this merger, until October 2004, he was the founding chairman and CEO of The YES Network the regional television home of the New York Yankees, after which he reconstituted and ran InterMedia Partners until the founding of Trine.

In February 1997 he was named president and CEO of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), then the world's largest cable television system operator. In March 1999, TCI merged into AT&T Corporation and Hindery became president and CEO of AT&T Broadband.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and from 2003 through December 2007 was Senate-appointed vice chair of the HELP Commission formed by an Act of Congress to improve U.S. foreign assistance. He is a member of the Hall of Fame of the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council, co-chair of the Task Force on Jobs Creation and was the founder of Jobs First 2012. He is a director of Hemisphere Media Group, Inc.

Hindery is a member of the Cable Industry Hall of Fame, was formerly chairman of the National Cable Television Association and of C-SPAN, and has been recognized as one of the cable industry's "25 Most Influential Executives Over the Past 25 Years".

He was co-founder along with Russian Federation Council Chairman Sergey Mironov of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA) and recipient of the Asia Society's Founders Award for his efforts in the international fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. From 2005 through 2007, Hindery was Democrat-appointed vice chair of the Presidential & Congressional HELP Commission which made recommendations to Congress for the reform of U.S. foreign assistance.

Hindery has written two books: It Takes a CEO: It’s Time to Lead with Integrity and The Biggest Game of All.

Hindery now lives in Cornelius, North Carolina. He has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BA from Seattle University.

Politics

 * In 2004, his name was floated as a possible successor to Terry McAuliffe as head of the Democratic National Committee.
 * Hindery served as Senior Economic Policy Advisor for presidential candidate John Edwards from December 2006 until February 2008. In 2008 Hindery was an economic and trade advisor to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, and in 2012 served as an economic policy surrogate for President Obama. On the withdrawal of Bill Richardson as nominee for Secretary of Commerce on January 4, 2009, it was suggested that he might be a suitable replacement.
 * Hindery endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Motorsport
Hindery was the chairman of Port Imperial Racing Associates, the organizer of the proposed Grand Prix of America Formula 1 race to be held at the Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey, United States. The race was included in the Formula 1 calendar for 2013, 2014 and 2015 but was ultimately cancelled due to a lack of funding.

A now-retired race car driver, Hindery's racing résumé includes a Class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (24 Heures du Mans) in 2005 and a Class second-place finish in 2003. He is a member of the NASCAR Winston West Hall of Fame.

Awards

 * He was inducted in the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2021.

Books

 * It Takes a CEO ISBN 0-7432-6985-3
 * The Biggest Game of All ISBN 0-7432-2900-2.