john carl malone (born march 7, 1941) is an american billionaire businessman, landowner and philanthropist. he was chief executive officer (ceo) of tele-communications inc. (tci), a cable and media giant, for twenty-four years from 1973 to 1996. malone is now chairman and largest voting shareholder of liberty media, liberty global, and qurate retail group (formerly known as liberty interactive), and also owns 7% of lionsgate and starz inc.. he was interim ceo of liberty media, until succeeded by former microsoft and oracle cfo greg maffei.