Peter Sealey, a former Columbia Pictures president of global marketing during the studio’s release of Ghostbusters, Tootsie, Stand By Me and The Karate Kid, died Dec. 15 from complications following a fall. He was 82 and passed in Palm Springs, Calif.
Before his studio days, Sealey was the global chief marketing officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where he produced the famous “Always Coca-Cola” campaign, the pinnacle of which were the iconic polar bear commercials. He shifted to Columbia when Coca-Cola bought the studio.
Sealey left Coca-Cola at 53 years old, reinventing himself as a global speaker, consultant, expert witness, and advisor to multiple Fortune 50 companies, including United Parcel Service, General Motors, and Sony Corporation.
He later became a professor at Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
Sealey also joined the advisory board of Facebook when it had only 12 employees, and was a pioneer in predicting the impact and future of social media.
His charitable work included endowing the Peter S. Sealey Marketing Professorship at the University of Florida, and The Peter S. Sealey annual award at the Global Family Business Institute at Claremont Graduate University. He was also a major donor to the International Program on Negotiation at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital.
Eisenhower Hospital named the Peter and Elizabeth Sealey Specialty Clinics in Palm Springs in their honor.
Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth, his two daughters, Caran Fisher and Rainey Temkin, two stepdaughters, Katherine Rue and Jane Rue-Ionita, three sons-in-law Mike Fisher, Andrew Temkin and Sergiu Rue-Ionita, five grandchildren, and his beloved dogs, Megan and Franky.