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Former Universal chair David Linde named CEO of Sundance Institute

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Former Universal chair David Linde named CEO of Sundance Institute
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Former Universal chair David Linde named CEO of Sundance Institute

2026-01-16 03:42 Last Updated At:03:50

David Linde, the former chairman of Universal Pictures and CEO of Participant Media, has been named CEO of the Sundance Institute. The nonprofit organization said Thursday that Linde will assume the role on Feb. 17, after this year’s festival concludes.

“I am honored to join Sundance Institute as CEO to steward an organization that is essential to independent artists, the broader creative community, and culture at large,” Linde said in a statement.

His role will include overseeing the Sundance Film Festival’s transition to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, as well as managing the year-round Sundance Institute programs, including artist labs, grants and fellowships.

A Hollywood veteran, Linde has worked across television and film for decades, cofounding Focus Features and overseeing numerous Oscar nominees and winners in his various roles. During Linde’s time at Participant, which shuttered in 2024, the company produced two best picture winners: “Spotlight” and “Green Book.” He also produced “Arrival.”

Sundance has been operating under an interim CEO, Amanda Kelso, since early 2024 when Joana Vicente stepped down. Vicente had replaced Keri Putnam in 2021. The Institute’s most high-profile event, the annual Sundance Film Festival, is gearing up for its last edition in Park City, Utah which will kick off next week.

Ebs Burnough, board chair of the Sundance Institute, said in a statement that, “David brings a rare combination of industry fluency, social cause management, and deep commitment to artists, positioning the organization to build on our legacy while advancing our mission for the future.”

FILE - David Linde appears at the American Cinematheque Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 2021. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - David Linde appears at the American Cinematheque Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 2021. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A surging stock market and a flurry of deal making padded the profits of Wall Street's two big investment banks, which both saw a double-digit jump in profits in the fourth quarter.

Goldman Sachs's net earnings rose 12% from a year earlier, posting a profit of $4.62 billion, or $14.01 a share. Meanwhile Morgan Stanley said it earned $4.4 billion, or $2.68 per share, compared to a profit of $3.71 billion, or $2.22 per share, compared to a year earlier.

Wall Street has been bolstered by the Trump administration's deregulatory policies, which has led corporations to seek out mergers and acquisitions, as well as the surge of investor interest in artificial intelligence companies and those who stand to benefit from the mass adoption of technologies like ChatGPT.

Fourth-quarter investment fee revenues over at Goldman were up 25% year-over-year and Morgan Stanley saw a 47% jump in revenue in its investment banking division. Both banks said their investment fee backlog, which is a signal of how much deal making is still pending that banks are working on, increased significantly in the fourth quarter.

Goldman and Morgan's results reflect the strong earnings out of the other big banks that reported their results this week. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup all saw jumps in fourth-quarter profits, but their results were dampened by the ongoing tensions that Wall Street is having with the White House over the issue of the independence of the Federal Reserve and President Donald Trump's interest in capping credit card interest rates at 10%.

Along with a strong investment banking performance, Goldman Sachs also agreed to sell off its Apple Card credit card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase last week, effectively exiting its brief experiment in consumer banking. The bank sold the credit card portfolio at a discount to JPMorgan, a sign of how desperately Goldman wanted to exit the business and put the Apple Card behind it.

This story has been corrected to show that Morgan Stanley's investment banking revenues rose 47%, not 22%.

FILE - Electronic signage is shown at Morgan Stanley headquarters, Thursday, March 4, 2021 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - Electronic signage is shown at Morgan Stanley headquarters, Thursday, March 4, 2021 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, the logo for Goldman Sachs appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, the logo for Goldman Sachs appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

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