Who

Toffler is the president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group, which means he oversees the cable conglomerate's numerous music properties—MTV, MTV2, VH1, CMT—as well as gay channel Logo. As the president of MTV Films, he's also the man you can thank for Jackass and Napoleon Dynamite.

Backstory

After graduating from UPenn's law school in 1983, Toffler put in some time at the law firm Kaye, Scholer, where he worked on several music-related transactions such as the sale of the Beatles catalog to Michael Jackson. Bored with life as a corporate lawyer, he wrote a letter to MTV expressing his interest in a job and he earned job in the company's business affairs group (the kindlier name for the legal department) in 1987. Toffler worked his way up the ladder over the next decade—one of his first major deals in the early '90s involved producing albums based on the successful MTV series Unplugged—and he helped turn the channel into a reality TV powerhouse in the late '90s and early '00s with shows like Jackass, The Osbournes, and Punk'd. In 2000, Toffler moved up to president of MTV and MTV2; two years later he assumed control over the broader portfolio of MTV properties, including VH1 and CMT. He's also responsible for broadening the company's reach to the big screen with MTV Films, which has produced movies like Jackass, Napoleon Dynamite, Hustle and Flow, and Blades of Glory.

Of note

All is not well in Toffler's domain. While the picture at VH1 is relatively rosy—celeb-reality fare like Flavor of Love and its various spin-offs consistently do well in the ratings—MTV has been hurting as of late. Toffler's big task these days is navigating the digital universe, which is a game of catch-up for MTV as it scrambles to adjust to the new formula of media consumption, wherein television is no longer king and kids spend more time on Facebook and using cellphones than they do sitting in front of the tube. (A failed bid to revive the company's online fortunes with the acquisition of MySpace was the main reason Toffler's former boss, Tom Freston, was canned in 2006.) To help turn things around, Toffler and his colleagues have been furiously cutting deals, although many of them have yet to bear fruit. In recent years, the company has acquired Atom Entertainment, Xfire, and Guitar Hero maker Harmonix Systems; launched flopped iTunes competitors like Urge and Rhapsody America; started a social networking site called Flux; and partnered with Yahoo! on a content partnership deal. As if all the digital woes weren't enough, there are MTV's programming difficulties to contend with, too: With the exception of The Hills, the network has had difficulty coming up with hits over the past couple of years.

On the job

Tom Calderone, general manager of VH1, reports to Toffler. (Christina Norman, who served as president of MTV and reported to Toffler, stepped down in February 2008.) He also works closely with the LA-based Brian Graden, MTV Networks's entertainment impresario; Robert Bakish, president of MTV International; and Bill Roedy, the global chair of MTV who oversees the company's operations abroad. Toffler reports to Judy McGrath, MTV Networks' CEO.

Personal

The Long Island native still lives on the Island, in Roslyn. He and his wife Cheryl have two kids, Rachel and Matthew.

True story

At a tech conference in 2006, Toffler said he was to blame for Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice, not because he had anything to do with either act—he didn't—but because both became popular because of the advent of MTV. Unfortunately for Toffler, many people in the audience misunderstood the quip and both acts are now inextricably tied to his name on the Web.