March 2023 Luncheon

Jeffrey H. Smulyan serves as founder, CEO and chairman of the board of Emmis Corporation, an Indianapolis-based publicly traded diversified holding company. Jeff is a former chairman and current director of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and a former Chairman of the Radio Advertising Bureau. He was also a former director of the National Association of Broadcasters, and a member of numerous other industry and civic boards and committees. As principal shareholder, he led a group that purchased the Seattle Mariners baseball team in 1989. In 1994, Jeff was named by the White House to head the U.S. Delegation to the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunications Union.

As a U.S. ambassador, he helped negotiate a landmark agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Jeff has been recognized as a Giant of Broadcasting by the Library of American Broadcasting, received the National Association of Broadcasters National Radio Award, and was inducted in the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and the Indiana Business Hall of Fame. He was also named a Living Legend of Indiana by the Indiana Historical Society. The Broadcasters Foundation honored him with its Golden Mike Award. In 2017, he received the Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award from the Broadcasters Foundation of America. Emmis was named one of Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For due to its vibrant, collaborative culture. Recently, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

A cum laude graduate of USC with a B.A. in history and telecommunications, Jeff earned a J.D. from the USC Gould School of Law, where he served as note and comment editor of the Southern California Law Review. He has served on the USC Board of Trustees since 2001.

Smulyan resides in suburban Indianapolis with his wife Heather. He has three children: Samantha, Cari, and Bradley, as well as two grandchildren.

Smulyan’s first book, Never Ride a Roller Coaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur, was released in December 2022.