Kevin Wall

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.

Career

Wall left home at 18, and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he joined the Rainbow People's Party, a left-wing anti-Vietnam war group. Working as a promoter assistant for the Rainbow People's Party, Wall attended the protest and benefit concert for John Sinclair, who had received a 10-year prison sentence for the possession of 2 joints of marijuana. Sinclair was released from prison on appeal 60 days following the benefit. The concert, which featured John Lennon, was a catalyst for Wall. "The one event changed forever how I viewed things. I saw how media and music could really change the way people feel. It was a way to rally people together and emotionally help drive awareness and change," he said in a 2010 interview with the South China Daily News.

In addition to working with the Rainbow People's Party, Wall 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 attended a television content and distribution conference in Cannes, France. Recognizing the market for international distribution of music programming, he co-founded with brother Karl Wall (Charlotte, NC) Radio Vision International, a production and distribution company for live music. The company quickly became profitable based on 60 music television programs in international distribution and a library of more than 125 music and specialty programs. The success of Radio Vision International allowed the Wall's to work on a break-even basis with non-profit organizations on projects which included 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 reached a market capitalization of $2 billion within one year.

In July 2005, Wall executive produced Live 8, a series of benefit concerts to bring attention to poverty in Africa. More than 250 musicians performed within 24 hours at concerts on 7 continents, including Madonna, U2, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, and Pink Floyd. The Live 8 concerts were broadcast on 182 television stations and 2000 radio networks, as well as online. Live 8’s audience was estimated at 2 billion viewers, a percentage of whom viewed the concerts worldwide via AOL in real time and on-demand. The use of the internet as a global distribution channel for Live 8 was considered a “defining moment for the medium – a tipping point.” As executive producer of Live 8, Wall won the first Emmy award for content delivered by the internet.

Live 8 was the inaugural production of Network LIVE, Wall’s joint venture with AEG, AOL, and XM Satellite Radio. In 2006, Wall acquired full control of the company 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. The event set a live-streaming record as 237,000 people watched video coverage from MSN simultaneously. Through the massive media architecture of the event, Live Earth reached an audience of nearly two billion people.

Live Earth developed from a one-time event into an advocacy organization dedicated to the creation of entertainment events and media content aimed raising awareness for the challenges and solutions associated with climate change. Live Earth works with corporate, non-governmental, entertainment and political influencers and organizations around the world. A Live Earth concert with performances scheduled to occur across all seven continents on June 18, 2015 was announced in January 2015 by Wall, Pharrell, and Gore.

Since its formation, Control Room has 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.

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. Wall’s investments include Blue Oak Resources, Beyond Meat, Banjo, Bretelon, Facebook, Gracias Madre, HLI (Human Longevity, Inc), Lux Delux, Inc., Kevita, Inc., Payoff, Scanadu, and Veggie Grill.

Personal life

Wall is married to Susan Smalley, Ph.D., a scientist, author, activist, and professor emeritus at UCLA in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Smalley did pioneering work in the genetics of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and founded the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA. The author of more than 100 scientific articles and the co-author of Fully Present: The Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness, Smalley serves as co-chair of the board of Equality Now, a human rights organization dedicated to women and girls. They have three children.

Awards

Board memberships