UCLA Anderson’s Stamp of Approval Got Him through the Door at Disney

Even before Mark Zee (’14) enrolled at UCLA Anderson, he led a fascinating life.

Born in Brazil to Chinese parents, Zee grew up in Minnesota and later attended Princeton, where he competed on the varsity swim team and earned his B.A. After graduation, he worked as a business lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. While there, he was approached by TV executives and went on to become an actor, host and reality star in Asia. He returned to the U.S. for a relationship and worked as an investment analyst for Eagle Global Advisors in Houston, but found it wasn’t for him long term.

“I grew up in a household where there were very high expectations, and yet I didn’t know what I was going to do next,” he says. “I had gone from being on TV in Asia to starting over as an entry-level analyst in Texas. It wasn’t the smoothest transition.”

Zee decided he would put both sides of his professional background to work by moving to Los Angeles to enroll at Anderson.

“I decided that I wanted to stay in the U.S. because — even though I’m Asian, I’m an immigrant, and I lived as an expat — I ultimately felt American. This is where I wanted to be, and I wanted to see if I could make a career in Hollywood, this time on the business side.”

“I believed Anderson would help me do that, while also allowing me to explore business more broadly,” he adds.

Zee followed his quest for exploration by taking a variety of classes, including courses in social impact, behavioral finance and real estate entrepreneurship. “I was able to stretch myself in a way that I’m not sure I would have been able to do at other schools,” he continues. “The culture at Anderson and the peers I had — being in L.A., too, with how diverse it is in terms of industries and people — were a great fit for me.”

While at Anderson, Zee landed a summer internship in the theatrical distribution department of 20th Century Fox. Against his career counselor’s advice, he stayed at Fox for his entire second year of business school, hopeful that it would lead to a permanent position. But that plan didn’t pan out. Around the time that Zee graduated, the company went through a reorganization, laid off some employees and put a hiring freeze in place.

“My counselor had warned me not to put all my eggs in one basket,” Zee recalls.

So, Zee looked for work elsewhere. “I was interviewing, and I got an offer that I didn’t love. As I went back and forth on my decision, Disney called me about a position I had submitted for on the career website completely cold. I ended up with the job a day later.”

Fast-forward to now: Zee has been at Disney for nearly nine years, and he’s climbed the corporate ladder in several roles, starting as a manager of international digital strategy and advancing to director roles before landing his current position as vice president of content sales and distribution.

“It’s different day-to-day, which keeps things fresh,” Zee says. “There are always new challenges.” As Zee notes, the industry has gone through dramatic changes in the last six years with the proliferation of streaming, the pandemic and other factors.

“My first three years at Disney, I was in a post-MBA strategy role. I was deep in presentations and financials, primarily focused on our online movie purchase and rental business in the international markets. From there, I moved to negotiating the deals for that business in the U.S. and globally.”

Three years ago, his role changed again. He shifted to a new position handling content licensing across U.S. and global accounts. “I now negotiate deals so that Amazon Prime Video, Roku, Apple TV+ and others can stream our features and series on their platforms,” he explains. “While the core Disney brands, including Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar, are generally exclusive to Disney+, we have a lot of non-branded content in the Disney library to work with,” Zee says. “And then, add to that the huge Fox acquisition. Much of what I do revolves around 20th Century content, which is a funny coincidence, given where I started.”

The number of clients and various types of agreements keep the day-to-day business interesting for Zee. “Over the past several years, we and our partners have experienced so much transformation and disruption. It can be jarring, but it’s also exciting,” he says.

Zee also works with platforms that Disney owns or has a stake in, including Hulu, Disney+, FX and Freeform. “I manage internal negotiations as well, which can often be more complex and time-intensive than external negotiations.” In addition, Zee collaborates with stakeholder teams on content distribution strategy.

Zee reflects on how Anderson prepared him for his role at Disney. “My first bosses came from impressive management consulting backgrounds,” he says. “One was from BCG and Harvard Business School and the other was from McKinsey and MIT Sloan. I don’t think they would have hired me if I hadn’t had the MBA and Anderson stamp of approval. Anderson got me through the door.”

But it didn’t stop there. “When it came to my work, I needed the hard skills and business acumen that Anderson provided. For example, I was creating and presenting strategy decks for leadership early on,” he says. “I didn’t have experience with that before business school.” Zee cites classes in entertainment strategy, corporate finance and financial modeling that have proven valuable in his tenure at Disney.

In 2022, Zee moved to the West Adams area of Los Angeles, where he shares his home with his cats, Bowie and Prince, named after two of his favorite rock icons. He’s a music fan who, when we spoke, was planning on attending the Coachella Festival in Indio, California. He also plays guitar and piano.

At Anderson, Zee was involved in student organizations, including the Entertainment Management Association, which he continues to be involved in today. “I’m always happy to volunteer and pay it forward because I feel like I owe so much of my career to Anderson,” Zee says. He’s also a member of the L.A. alumni chapter board and participates in mentorship programs. He continues to see other Anderson alumni on a regular basis. “There’s a big group of us who still get together regularly,” he says. “That type of community — the friendship and support — has had such a positive impact on my life.”

On top of his regular duties, Zee leads one of Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion councils, a role that is very personal to him. “I’ve always felt like a cultural mutt and a bit different, as a Chinese-Brazilian who moved to the Midwest, where there weren’t a lot of people like me and my family around. There were very few Asians to begin with, and certainly not Asians from Latin America.”

“Growing up, I saw how underrepresented groups were portrayed in the media. It was disheartening and, unfortunately, impactful. I thought that maybe there was a way I could make a difference there, whether it was in front of or behind the camera. Even though I’m no longer acting, I have an opportunity to fulfill that dream and help impact representation, culture and accountability in this industry. I’m hopeful.”