Greg Blatt

About

Greg Blatt

Raised in Weston, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, Blatt's mother was a therapist, and his father was a management consultant and exporter. Describing his father as a mad genius with an opinion on everything -- whether people wanted to hear it or not -- Blatt learned during his formative years the importance of trusting your gut, independent thinking, and making sure your voice is heard. These were the life skills he carried with him that proved to be influential through his collegiate, law, and corporate career.

Blatt attended Colgate University in upstate New York for his undergraduate degree. While he excelled in school, after earning a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature, he remained unsure of the direction he wished his career to go. Rather than flounder in uncertainty or move forward on a path he lacked passion for, Greg spent the next couple years traveling. Spending time in Telluride, San Francisco, Reims, and Budapest to make a living, he took odd jobs painting houses, as well as bussing tables and bartending. With his adept listening skills, he was a natural bartender and said at one point about his position as CEO of Match Group "if I could be as good at this job as I was at that job, I will do well."

Blatt enjoyed his nomadic lifestyle, but after two years, he desired a further challenge to his mental facilities and on a whim applied to Columbia University Law School. He described his time at Columbia as "athletic training for his brain" and upon graduation was offered the position of an associate at the prestigious M&A law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. There for three years, Blatt found that while the work was incredibly demanding -- he was often at his office in all hours of the night, sometimes sleeping on the floor -- the experience was invaluable. He credits it for developing the strong work ethic he now applies to every aspect of his life.

A creative by nature, Blatt left Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to become an associate at Grubman Indursky Schindler PC, making the transition with the thought that working at the entertainment law firm could open doors to a practical application for his interest in screenwriting. However, the most substantial connection he made ended up being someone not from the Hollywood elite, but the original lifestyle guru who was at the pinnacle of her success at the time: Martha Stewart. Having consolidated her various television, print, and merchandising ventures into a single new company called Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she worked closely with Blatt over the course of his two years at Grubman Indursky Schindler PC. She was impressed with his dynamic energy and hardworking attitude. When the time came to take her company public, she knew exactly who she wanted as her senior vice president/general counsel. She offered the position to Blatt, who readily accepted.

Blatt worked tirelessly for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, handily guiding the company through the process of going public. A rousing success, MSO saw its initial public offering price nearly triple on its first day of trading at the New York Stock Exchange. During his four and a half year tenure there, he was promoted to the position of executive vice president of general counsel & business affairs. He began overseeing all of the company's transactions from a business perspective, including mergers & acquisitions, licensing deals, and other foreign and domestic partnerships. Working closely with Stewart, he saw her become the first female self-made billionaire in the United States, a feat that could not have been accomplished without his assistance.

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Recommended by a former colleague from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Blatt was offered the position of executive vice president of general counsel at InterActivCorp. Similar to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, IAC was a holding company with a focus on media and the internet. With over 100 brands under their umbrella, including Expedia, Match.com, and Home Shopping Network, Blatt was up for a new challenge and felt ready to apply all he had learned in his previous positions at a larger scale. This was the start of an over a decade-long tenure working in increasingly significant positions within IAC and its subsidiaries.

During his time as general counsel at IAC, Blatt worked closely with then CEO Barry Diller. Known for his ability to mentor those working under him to great success -- some of his previous mentees went on to head companies such as Disney, Columbia, and Dreamworks. Diller was impressed with Blatt's boisterous enthusiasm and encouraged him to observe and be a part of all strategic and operating decisions within the company. As his time at IAC rounded on five years, his tenacity paid off, and he was made CEO of Match.com, their dating site that was undergoing a difficult patch and could directly benefit from the problem-solving skills he was now known for. Within months, Blatt righted the course for Match.com and through his leadership, saw it grow substantially in both profits and subscriber base.

With such a strong performance in his short term as CEO of Match.com, he was the obvious choice for CEO of IAC when Barry Diller decided to transition to a different role. Though he was similarly able to drive growth in this endeavor as he had with Match.com, after three years, he moved back into the world of dating websites, this time as executive chairman for Match Group, a subsidiary of IAC that now holds all of their dating websites including Match.com. Thanks to his previous leadership moving growth for Match.com in the right direction, Match Group was IAC's biggest business by far and went public itself during his time there.

For the next six years, he moved seamlessly between various positions of chairman and CEO within Match Group and one of its fastest-growing companies, Tinder. With Match.com being a huge success story for the company, IAC's smart investment in Tinder showed foresight for the coming transition from website to app-based social networking. Under Blatt's leadership, they introduced "Tinder Plus," a subscription service for the app that significantly increased the ability to create revenue, and saw membership reach over one million subscribers in his time at the helm. His management saw the company grow from a start-up app to the global phenomenon it is today.

In 2018, Blatt began to feel the pull of other interests and decided to move on both from Match Group and Tinder. Blatt's savvy intuition for trends within the tech and dating world not only saw the creation of companies with ever-growing financial value but also has helped to foster millions of connections and relationships in a fast-changing world in which it is increasingly difficult.