Why an NBCU exec decided to open up about his clinical depression
This article was originally posted on Fortune.com and is excerpted below. See the full article here.
Jimmy Horowitz has a big job in Hollywood as the vice chairman of business affairs and operations for NBCUniversal. When you watch your favorite movies, TV shows, or news programs, there’s a chance Jimmy did the deal. He’s a lawyer by training, and he runs the business behind the creative.
In 2019, and for the first time in his life, Horowitz was suffering from clinical depression. He kept it a secret for months.
“In my job, I’m responsible for the money we spend on films. The creative people get a little more leeway to be who they really are. [But] there’s this expectation of being a straightlaced business person, like you don’t have feelings,” he says.
“So I just dealt with it on my own. I basically worked in my office with the door closed and just tried to avoid interaction with people. When you’re going through something like this, you realize everyone’s so busy and they’re also not equipped. I don’t know how many people noticed.”
He told no one until he was asked to be the executive sponsor of NBC Universal’s new workplace mental health program in the fall of 2020. “I decided I couldn’t lead the initiative without sharing my secret, so I invited my boss, Donna Langley [chair of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group], to dinner and told her why I was so passionate about the issue and shared my story.” Langley told him, “I knew there was something going on for you. I just didn’t know what it was.”
“She didn’t know how to ask,” Jimmy says. “And therein lies the dilemma. Because it isn’t easy to notice, and it’s hard to start the conversation. How do you ask in a way that isn’t too personal?”
Horowitz has been open about his depression ever since, and colleagues have expressed gratitude but also disbelief that a leader like him might be suffering.