Executive Profile: Greg Blatt

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Behind every thriving company, exemplary leaders successfully dictate growth trajectory, create brand messaging, and leverage their expertise to create tangible positive change. Through active management of all aspects of the business, these Executives are directly linked to the performance of the company, and aim to provide unparalleled insight, expertise, and value to the company. By actively growing their portfolio over time, many leaders amass the knowledge needed to excel within larger-scale operations, and essentially create a well-curated executive career. Throughout these assignments, however, prominent Executives are meticulously aware of the ebb and flow of their own interests, and pursue active opportunities that drive their professional passions. Greg Blatt, former CEO of Match Group and Tinder, has meticulously chosen his professional assignments, and has developed a meaningful array of roles that have lent themselves perfectly to his continued success, and ability to thrive professionally.

During his undergraduate studies, Mr. Blatt was an exemplary student, and received his Bachelor’s Degree from Colgate University. Without feeling the particular drive that inspires young professionals to venture forth within a particular sector, Blatt made the vastly wise choice to explore his options post matriculation. Exploring throughout Telluride, Colorado, Budapest, Reims, France, and San Francisco, Blatt vigorously lived with purpose throughout this transitory period, and filled his days with bartending, bussing tables, and painting houses. Intrigued by the notion of attending law school, Blatt enrolled at the prestigious Columbia University Law School. Throughout his studies, he found himself enthralled by corporate law, and delved into the specialty with fervor, eventually earning his Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University Law School.

Upon the completion of his formal studies, Blatt leveraged his newly forged legal skills as an associate at a premiere New York City law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Though he was proactively carving a name for himself amongst the M&A niche, Blatt soon recognized that this niche field did not meet his creative needs, and would not amount to the most fruitful utilization of his skills, interests, and talents. Pivoting toward the niche field of entertainment law, Blatt was able to parlay his legal prowess, while welcoming the potential inspiration that abounded in the field.

With a vastly promising proposition to join client Martha Stewart’s general counsel as a result of her recently formed company going public, Blatt followed his business intuition, and joined the ranks at the newly forged Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Serving as Executive Vice President and General Counsel from September 1999, Blatt expanded his vast role within the MSO umbrella to include Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel for the company from January 2001 to October 2003. Within this role, Blatt recognized his preference for serving as General Counsel for a company, in lieu of following a more traditional legal trajectory of becoming an Associate at a law firm. Within this position, Blatt amassed various skills that would be parlayed appropriately within future endeavors.

Continuing upon his carefully curated professional trajectory, Blatt accepted a position with IAC, which had a $27 billion market cap at the time, and resulted in heightened opportunities for Blatt. Joining IAC in 2003, Blatt became the company’s Executive Vice President, and General Counsel until 2009, eventually becoming the company’s Senior Vice President. After partaking on this specific trajectory for the next five years, Blatt was offered an Operations based position within IAC’s then-fledgling “dating business”.

Intrigued by the prospect of developing this segment, and spearheading the growth efforts for this project, Blatt accepted the challenge. With online dating in its inaugural stages, Blatt remained confident in the rise of upcoming demand for a specialized online dating platform, and began building Match Group into the leading modern dating platform that is it to this day. Within this role, Blatt played an integral role in the conceptualization, development, and branding efforts associated with Match, and leveraged his previous skills, business acumen, creative vision, and professional intuition to create tangible results for the swiftly growing company.

Approached by Barry Diller within the midst of his assignment with Match Group, Blatt side-stepped expertly into the role of CEO of IAC, where he remained at the helm for the next three years, from December 2010 to December 2013. Though he excelled within this assignment, Blatt once again utilized his expert self-insight to determine that his breadth of knowledge, passion, and skills would be best suited for the task of running the growing Match sector, creating increasing value for Match, and driving the continuously growing endeavor to an independent IPO.

Armed with expertise with mergers and acquisitions, business development and growth, and structuring businesses for continued growth, Blatt returned to the specific Match domain as the Executive Chairman of Match Group from December 2013 to December 2015. Returning to Match, Blatt remained focused on the company’s IPO, which brought the company public on November 19, 2015. With Match Group’s growing portfolio of online dating platforms, Blatt continued to parlay his expertise via additional leadership roles that led to the continued growth of the various platforms offered by Match Group.

Blatt excelled as Executive Chairman of Tinder from July 2015 to December 2016, and played a pivotal role in monumental development milestones, including the introduction of Tinder’s Super Like feature. In September 2016, the company’s unveiling of Vina, a social networking tool aimed at women developing and nurturing new friendships, became an integral part of the company’s growth plan, and expansion into additional products. Eventually, curating his career as the Chairman and CEO of Match Group from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017, and CEO of Tinder from December 2016 through December 2017, Blatt leveraged his previous experiences toward success within these multifaceted positions.

Throughout his leadership-driven career, Blatt has leveraged his expertise, and a myriad of perfected skills, to leverage tangible company growth, expansion, and overall success. Personally, through acquiring positions of great interest, Blatt has garnered professional fulfillment, which has led to his continued fervor for his assignments. With conscious effort, Greg M. Blatt has expanded his repertoire to include a variety of leadership roles within emerging product markets, including the digital dating sphere. From its fledgling phases, Blatt’s career has been a culmination of his strengths, interests, and passions, leading to extensive Executive roles. Citing ongoing flexibility as a leading factor for his professional success, Blatt believes in the transformative power of garnering skills applicable in various applications, roles, and titles. With this all-encompassing outlook, Blatt has increased his own marketability, and allowed him to succeed within his multiple roles. Follow Greg Blatt on LinkedIn and Medium.

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