Rocco Commisso

Rocco Benito Commisso (; born 25 November 1949) is an Italian-born American billionaire businessman, and the founder, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mediacom, the fifth largest cable television company in the US. As of 2011, the company is privately owned by Commisso. He previously worked for companies including Cablevision, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Chase Manhattan Bank. Since 2017, Commisso has been the owner and chairman of the New York Cosmos, and since June 2019, the owner of the Italian football club ACF Fiorentina. Early life and education Born in Calabria, Italy, Commisso migrated to the United States at age 12. Commisso attended Mount Saint Michael Academy high school in the Bronx and attended Columbia University on a full undergraduate scholarship where he earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in 1971 from its School of Engineering and Applied Science. He earned an MBA in 1975 from Columbia Business School. He was co-captain of Columbia's varsity football (soccer) team; elected president of the business school student body; and received the business school service award. Career Commisso began his business career at Pfizer Inc. After returning to Columbia and graduating from business school, he spent ten years in the financial industry, initially at Chase Manhattan Bank (now J.P. Morgan Chase). In 1978, he began working with cable companies and other entertainment enterprises as a part of Chase's corporate financing department. He later worked at Royal Bank of Canada, where he led the bank's U.S. lending activities to the media and communications sectors. From 1986 to 1995, he was executive vice president, chief financial officer, and director of Cablevision Industries Corporation. During this time, Cablevision Industries grew from the 25th to the 8th largest cable company in the United States, with around 1.3 million customers at the time of its merger with Time Warner.