Who

A longtime confidante of Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, Dauman is the CEO of Viacom. He replaced Tom Freston in September of 2006.

Backstory

The child of French immigrants—his father is noted French photographer Henri Dauman—Philippe grew up in New York and first came to Sumner Redstone's attention as an associate at the white-shoe law firm Shearman & Sterling. Over the following decade he became one of the media mogul's trusted advisors and assisted him on a variety of legal fronts, joining Viacom's board of directors in 1987. Six years later, Dauman left Shearman & Sterling to join Viacom as its general counsel and executive vice president. He remained at the company as one of Redstone's chief lieutenants until 2000, when he was forced out after Mel Karmazin was appointed CEO of Viacom. Along with his right-hand, Tom Dooley, Dauman founded a media-focused private equity firm, DND Capital Partners. But he returned soon enough. After Redstone kicked Tom Freston to the curb in 2006, Dauman was lured back to Viacom as CEO. Dooley returned as well and is now the company's chief administrative officer.

Of note

Octogenarian Redstone is famous for ushering out senior execs who suddenly fall out of favor and Freston was no exception. It was rumored that Redstone was incensed that the MTV co-founder had missed out on several key acquisitions like MySpace; luring Dauman back into the fold, Redstone believed, meant that a hard-charging dealmaker was running the show.

Dauman has certainly demonstrated some bite: Just months after moving into the CEO suite, he filed a $1 billion suit against Google for "massive intentional copyright infringement" after clips from Viacom shows—like The Daily Show and Colbert Report—continued to appear on YouTube despite repeated warnings. Dauman has also tried his demonstrate his discipline to Wall Street, cutting costs, slashing hundreds of jobs, and sending several senior execs packing, including MTV COO Michael Wolf and Paramount president Gail Berman.

But while some investors may be pleased, Dauman's fans aren't exactly lining up around the block: His role in ousting widely-admired Freston and his image as a stiff corporate suit hasn't earned him many admirers at the company—or Hollywood at large for that matter, particularly after he made disparaging comments about DreamWorks in late 2007. For the moment, though, Dauman has the unpredictable Redstone's trust, which is really the only thing that matters. But how much longer that will continue is anyone's guess: With Redstone's health on the decline and without a clear successor—it was originally anticipated that Redstone's daughter, Shari, would take over but recent father-daughter tension makes that scenario less likely—it remains a mystery who'll be calling the shots when Redstone departs the scene.

Keeping score

Dauman reportedly left Viacom in 2000 with a golden parachute worth more than $150 million. He earned $20.6 million in his first full year as Viacom's CEO.

On the job

Dauman is the man who many top execs at Viacom-owned properties report to, including MTV's Judy McGrath, Comedy Central's Doug Herzog, Paramount's Brad Grey, BET's Debra Lee, and Showtime's Matt Blank.

Personal

Philippe and his wife, Deborah, have two sons, Philippe Jr. and Alexandre. The couple lives in a historic townhouse in the East 60s that they purchased for $5 million in 1995. The manse was designed by William Welles Bosworth, who also designed the Sony building on Madison Avenue and the Rockefeller estate in Tarrytown. The Daumans have a weekend home in East Hampton.

No joke

Early in his career, he was known in media circles as "Phil." In recent years, he's reverted to the much more posh-sounding "Philippe."