When he arrived at UVM in the fall of 1984, Fredric “Ricky” Strauss felt it was everything that a university should be. Coming from metro New York, he was seduced by Vermont, and over the course of his four years at UVM, the faculty and students he collaborated with while pursuing studies in English and Theatre met and exceeded his expectations of the college experience.
Fast forward to 2014 and Ricky is now the President of Marketing for The Walt Disney Studios, overseeing global marketing strategy encompassing creative, media, digital, promotions, publicity, research, and synergy for live-action and animated motion pictures released under the Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Touchstone Pictures banners. Some of the films that Disney has delivered under Strauss's tenure are Frozen, Marvel’s The Avengers, and Iron Man 3, three of the six biggest global hits of all time, as well as the Disney live-action tale Maleficent, Disney•Pixar's Brave and Monsters University, and DreamWorks Pictures' Lincoln.
UVM’s broad offerings, bountiful with exciting course topics and the kind of instruction to bring those topics to life, resonated with Ricky. He explored not just film, theatre, and creative writing at UVM, but also art history. In his junior year he spent a semester abroad at the American University in Paris where he further explored art and architecture while continuing his study of creative writing through his love for the arts.
As an upperclassman, he secured a summer internship at TriStar Pictures in New York and worked in the marketing and publicity department, laying the groundwork for his career in the entertainment industry. He knew he loved the medium of film and the art of advertising, he says, because the process explores the “promise and delivery” of what a movie is going to be. At TriStar he learned that when it’s done right, marketing engages the viewer.
Ricky graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude in 1988 with a BA in English and a Theatre minor. He was offered a full-time position at TriStar in the fall. When the company was sold to Sony Pictures six months later, he relocated to LA at age 22 and spent the next 16 years at Sony TriStar, where he served as a senior marketing executive for Columbia/TriStar Pictures and later as Senior Vice President of Production. He later joined Participant Media where he was president for seven years before joining Disney.
Reflecting on his summer internship at TriStar Pictures, Ricky recognizes the importance of that experience. “Internships provide an excellent opportunity to help students obtain a better understanding of a field they are interested in pursuing. The experience one can gain by working in a real business environment is invaluable. Even if the ideal job isn't available immediately, I think it's important to be immersed in an area you are passionate about to learn more. Campus Career counseling or faculty and alumni could be helpful in this regard. I don't believe I would have necessarily found myself in entertainment if it wasn't for the internship I had at TriStar Pictures the summer of my junior year.”
Over his career Ricky has also learned that marketing, like the movies whose campaigns he oversees, is its own form of storytelling, and he looks back to his days at UVM as an incubator for the passion that set him on his career path. “Those long winters help foster the seeds of creativity,” he recalls. “I found that my love of storytelling was nurtured and encouraged by the incredible educators I encountered, and I was also inspired by my fellow students.” For him, those seeds sprouted deep roots to the film industry, and even today he says his work provides him the constant opportunity to learn from a dynamic variety of creative people with whom he collaborates.