Michael Pack is the President and CEO of Palladium Pictures LLC, as well a producer, director, and executive producer for Palladium’s upcoming films.
Michael is also President of Manifold Productions, Inc., an independent film and television production company, which he founded in 1977. Through Manifold Productions, he has written, directed, and produced numerous award-winning nationally broadcast documentaries as well as corporate and educational films.
His most recent film, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, a two-hour documentary, opened in movie theaters on January 31st, 2020 and was broadcast nationally via PBS on May 18th, 2020. The Washington Post called it “a marvel of filmmaking,” and the Washington Examiner said it is “magnificent and necessary.” Also, upcoming, The Last 600 Meters, tells the story of the 2004 battles of Najaf and Fallujah, the two biggest battles of the Iraq War.
Michael’’s other major television credits include: RICKOVER: The Birth of Nuclear Power, starring Tim Blake Nelson and narrated by Joan Allen (2014); Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton, hosted by Richard Brookhiser (2011); God and the Inner City, narrated by Phylicia Rashad (2003); Rediscovering George Washington, hosted by Richard Brookhiser (2002); The Fall of Newt Gingrich, narrated by Blair Brown (2000); The Rodney King Incident: Race and Justice in America, narrated by Robert Prosky (1998); Inside the Republican Revolution: The First Hundred Days, hosted by Don Lambro (1995); Hollywood vs. Religion, hosted by Michael Medved (1995); Campus Culture Wars: Five Stories about Political Correctness, narrated by Lindsay Crouse (1993); America’s Political Parties, hosted by Ben Wattenberg and David Gergen (1988 & 1992); Fire from the Sun: The Search for Fusion Energy, hosted by E. G. Marshall (1990); Hollywood’s Favorite Heavy: Businessmen on Prime Time TV, hosted by Eli Wallach (1987); among others. All have been nationally broadcast on PBS, except The Rodney King Incident, which premiered on TLC.
From June 2020 to January 2021, Michael served as the first Senate-confirmed CEO of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees the government’s five international broadcasting networks: Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Together, they reach an audience of over 350 million people a week, in over 60 languages, with a budget of more than $850 million per year. Mr. Pack’s goal was to return the agency to its core mission: to offer objective, balanced news to oppressed people; to “tell America’s story” to the world; and to promote American ideals such as freedom and democracy.
From 2015 to 2017, he served as President and CEO of the Claremont Institute in Upland, CA, and Publisher of its Claremont Review of Books. During his tenure, Michael revamped its management and organizational structure, created a new communications department, which vastly increased its national prominence, and opened offices in DC to launch new programs and increase its profile in the policy world.
From 2003-2006, he served as Senior Vice President for Television Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He restructured the programming department and launched several new initiatives. These included: America at a Crossroads (a series of 20 documentary films addressing issues facing America in the wake of the attacks of 9/11) and the American History and Civics Initiative (innovative, new media designed to address the crisis of historical amnesia in middle and high school students).
In 2002, President Bush nominated and the Senate confirmed Michael to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, which oversees the National Endowment for the Humanities. He served from July 2002 to February 2005.
In 1993, he served as Co-Chair of the International TV Council at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In this capacity, he oversaw the Council’s efforts to determine the feasibility of launching a cooperative program between American public television producers and stations and their counterparts in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Previously, he received a political appointment as Director of WORLDNET, the U.S. Information Agency’s global satellite network. WORLDNET produced, acquired, and distributed programs to over 127 countries and over 200 cities on all continents twenty-four hours a day. He oversaw WORLDNET’s 291 employees and annual budget of $23 million. WORLDNET, now called VOA-TV, has merged with the Voice of America.
Michael attended Yale College, the University of California at Berkeley, and studied film at New York University. Before launching Manifold Productions and Palladium Pictures, he worked extensively in production and post-production. He worked as a staff editor for RAI, the Italian TV network, and for Pathé News in New York. Michael and his wife, Gina, also at Palladium Pictures, have three sons and reside in Chevy Chase, Maryland.His favorite film is The Man who Shot Liberty Valance.