Alumni Spotlight: Ira Liss ’91 — A Liberal Arts Education Without Limits

From philosophy major to Hollywood entrepreneur and finance executive, Ira Liss ’91 demonstrates how a liberal arts education can open doors across industries

Ira Liss graduated from Colgate in 1991 and is a testament to how a liberal arts education can inspire a career path that transcends traditional professional boundaries. Liss graduated from Colgate with a degree in philosophy and religion. Reflecting on his education, Liss ‘91 described the teachings of the late Colgate professor Coleman Brown on mythologist Joseph Campbell as a core memory. His academic background and education from Colgate equipped him to apply diverse perspectives and intellectual curiosity across industries.

Liss’s career started in finance, but he found inspiration from his Colgate friendships. His Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers founded Charred Goosebeak, a comedy troupe that evolved into Broken Lizard, the group behind Super Troopers. Having always had a knack for talent and entertainment, exposure to friends in the industry, and encouragement from his wife, Liss ‘91 was inspired to transition into Hollywood. Over the next two decades, Liss ‘91 built a career in talent management, production, and entrepreneurship, eventually founding Manifest Talent Group in 2007. Manifest Talent Group is a talent management and production company that supports entertainment projects through creative development and financing. Liss’s accomplishments include selling Mad Men to AMC and helping advance the careers of actors including Jeff Goldblum and Jeremy Strong.

Alongside his career in Hollywood, Liss ‘91 has remained connected to finance. He now serves as Senior Vice President of Sales at Landing Rock, a firm that offers institutional cash management solutions. Specifically, Landing Rock distributes institutional deposits across a network of federally insured banks and credit unions, offering up to $50 million in deposit insurance coverage per tax ID, competitive interest rates, and next-day liquidity. In his role, Liss ‘91 works with institutions and fiduciaries, helping them protect and optimize significant cash holdings.

Reflecting on Colgate's lasting influence on his life and career, Liss ’91 drew on his experience in entertainment:

"As we’re all essentially producing, directing and acting in the longest series that we’ll ever watch - our own lives - I regard Colgate as having top billing status while I attended. And ever since, it’s remained a plot-driving influence on the TV series that is my life."

Liss’s success across both Hollywood and the finance industry illustrates the value of creative and critical thinking, adaptability, and relationship building that Colgate’s liberal arts education fosters in its students.