Before last week, few people outside of Hollywood had heard of David Ellison, former actor, life-long aviation enthusiast, film producer, and, notably, son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Just a few days ago, however, the 41-year-old’s company Skydance Media clinched a $8 billion deal to buy and merge with the struggling film and television company Paramount Global. Now, Ellison is a mogul-in-waiting and the latest member in the growing club of nepo CEOs.
The concept of nepotism has been with us since the mid-17th Century, when Italian Catholic popes began giving their nephews, or nipote, high-ranking church positions strictly because of familial ties. Even now, it’s a practice humans can’t seem to shake.
