User:JSFarman/sandbox/Rewrite

Kevin Wall (born March 15, 1952) is an American media entrepreneur, global event producer, investor and activist. He is the CEO and founder of the investment fund, PTK Capital, the co-founder and co-chairman of Dreamscape Immersive, a location-based virtual reality start up, and the founder and CEO of Control Room, a Los Angeles-based production company. The first person to receive an Emmy award for interactive content, Wall is noted for his role in the development and/or adoption of media technologies including online and platform-agnostic distribution and media practices such as international rights acquisition and licensing.

Wall's ventures often integrate environmental and social activism. With Radio Vision International, his first media company, he distributed and produced live benefit concerts including Human Rights Now!, USA for Africa, Live Aid, and the anti-apartheid Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute. As the founder and CEO of Control Room, he executive produced  Live 8 an which drew a worldwide audience of a billion people, and created and executive produced Live Earth, viewed globally by an estimated two billion people. Wall co-founded Sustainable Holdings, a company which weights its holdings based on a company’s sustainability score, and is a general partner at Craton Equity Partners, a $242 million green-tech private equity fund. PTK Capital focuses on early investments in companies that offer social, environmental and educational benefits and address issues of gender equality.

Early life
Wall grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his family of fourteen worked and lived in a roller-skating rink called the Roller Dome. He programmed music as the Roller Dome disc jockey, and later said that the experience gave him insight into the power of music to move people.

Stage One, Radio Vision International, BoxTop/iXL
Wall left home at 18, and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he promoted concerts at the University of Michigan and other Midwest colleges. After he was asked to provide a portable stage for a George Harrison show, Wall founded a portable staging company, Stage One, Inc. Within several years, the company had become the largest of its kind, providing lighting, staging, and outdoor production for stadium and arena tours for The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who, among other artists.

In 1984, Wall founded Radio Vision International, a company which "pioneered the business of international music video licensing." Convinced of the opportunity that increasing broadcast options would provide, he developed the idea for Radio Vision while attending an annual television conference in Cannes. His assessment was accurate, and Radio Vision was quickly profitable, distributing 60 music television programs internationally and building a library of more than 125 music and specialty programs. The company's financial success allowed Wall to work with non-profits, providing Radio Vision's services on a break-even basis for benefit concerts such as Live Aid, USA for Africa, the Human Rights Now! Tour, the 70th birthday tribute to South African activist Nelson Mandela and the annual Prince's Trust Rock Gala, sponsored by Britain's Prince Charles, to raise money for underprivileged children.

In 1994 Wall established BoxTop, a web design company, which was merged with iXL, an Atlanta-based media and internet consulting company in 1997. As the vice chairman of iXL, Wall led the strategic acquisition and organization of 42 Internet design and consulting companies to build a venture with 3,000 employees, 38 offices and annual revenues of over $400 million. iXL went public in 1999 and in 2000 reached a market capitalization of $2 billion.

Live 8, Live Earth, Control Room, Dreamscape Immersive
In 2005, Wall created Network LIVE, a joint venture with AEG, AOL, and XM Satellite Radio. Wall executive produced its inaugural production, Live 8, and designed its global media architecture. A series of benefit concerts to bring attention to poverty in Africa, Live 8 involved more than 250 musicians, including Madonna, U2, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, and Pink Floyd, who performed within 24 hours of one another at concerts on 7 continents. Utilizing both legacy and new media, the concert drew an audience of two billion people, with a live worldwide multi-feed webcast setting online viewership records. As the executive producer of Live 8, Wall won the first Emmy for content delivered via the internet; it was later described as a "tipping point" and the "defining moment" in online content distribution. In 2006, Wall acquired full control of Network LIVE and renamed it Control Room. Inspired by US Vice President Al Gore and his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Wall created Live Earth, a global concert event designed to raise environmental awareness and combat climate change. On July 7, 2007, 150 musical acts, including The Police, Alicia Keys, Metallica, and Kanye West performed at eleven locations around the world in concerts that were broadcast globally through television, satellite and terrestrial radio, handheld devices, and the internet. Live Earth reached an audience of nearly two billion people and set live streaming records, with 15 million streams initiated during the live event, and 100 million the following week. Initially envisioned as a one-off event, Live Earth became an advocacy organization which works with th corporate, non-governmental, entertainment and political influencers and organizations around the world.

In 2016, Wall invested in and co-founded Dreamscape Immersive with Walter Parkes. An entertainment and technology company. it creates story-based full-roam VR experiences which allow as many as six people at once to explore a virtual 3D environment, seeing fully rendered avatars of one another. Wall serves as co-chairman of the company, which received nearly $40 million in investments from film studios, AMC, IMAX, Steven Spielberg, and others. As of 2018, Control Room had created, developed, distributed and/or produced more than 150 events, including the Green Inaugural Ball, the FIFA World Cup Kick off Celebration in 2010, and Gucci's Chime for Change concert. The company has won 11 Telly Awards for excellence in categories including Education, Information, News, Social Issues, and Videography.

Venture capital, equity, and early stage investments
Wall is a general partner of Craton Equity Partners, a $242 million green-tech private equity fund, and a founder of Sustainable Holdings, a company which weights its holdings based on a company’s sustainability score. He co-founded Shelter Capitol Partners, a $175 million venture capital fund focused on companies in the semi-conductor, software, and convergence sectors. In 1999, he founded PTK Capital, a family investment fund that supports "people and ideas with the potential to significantly benefit the human condition." He has made direct early stage investments in companies including Facebook, KeVita, and Akamai.

Personal life
Wall is married to Susan Smalley, a scientist, author, activist, and professor emeritus at UCLA in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. She serves as co-chair of the board of Equality Now, a human rights organization dedicated to women and girls. They have three children.

Recognition and awards (partial list)

 * Advertising Age Marketer of the Year
 * Billboard Touring Conference Humanitarian Award
 * Ellis Island Medal of Honor
 * EMA Outstanding Achievement Award
 * GQ Environmental Pillar Award
 * EMA Outstanding Achievement Award