If you are going to be the chairman and CEO of the William Morris Agency – dealing with big-time actors, musicians, writers and sports figures as well as political and corporate royalty – it helps to have spent your early years involved with people on the national stage.

Even before Jim Wiatt ’69 went to Beverly Hills High School with other future boldfaced names such as Barry Diller and Andre’ Previn, he remembers Martin Luther King Jr. coming to his home in 1960 and standing on his parents’ staircase, speaking to a gathering of social activists.

During his junior year as a history major here, Wiatt volunteered for Bobby Kennedy’s campaign for president. He missed his share of classes due to the campaign, and was in the Ambassador Hotel on primary night when Kennedy was assassinated. That shattering experience led Wiatt and others to form the Kennedy Action Corps, working for gun control. “We were in Sacramento butting up against the full power of the NRA,” he recalls, an experience he remembers as “so intimidating” for the men and women he volunteered with. Despite their best efforts, their push for gun control failed.

After graduation, it was on to John Tunney’s Senate campaign and, later, positions as Tunney’s administrative aide and field rep. Wiatt interacted with a “Who’s Who of important future politicos,” such as Warren Christopher, who went on to become U.S. secretary of state; Jane Harman, currently a U.S. representative; former California governor Gray Davis; former U.S. congressman Mel Levine and Chuck Manatt, who became chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Wiatt stayed in politics until Tunney was defeated in 1976. He decided to become a literary agent and, ironically, was turned down for jobs in the mailrooms of William Morris and International Creative Management (ICM) – both firms he later ran. The reason for the turndowns? “Too qualified,” he was told. But rejection never bothers him, Wiatt says, and he began with a smaller firm, the Frank Cooper Agency.

When Wiatt eventually went to ICM, his ability to identify powerful friends continued. A few months into his career there, Wiatt signed a then-unknown country singer named Willie Nelson. He has represented Nelson ever since.

He left as president of ICM in 1999 to join William Morris, where he is currently trying to channel power in a new way: relocating the agency to a new 201,000-square-foot eco-friendly structure that will be the first LEED-certified green office building in Beverly Hills. Wiatt credits his wife, Elizabeth, a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council for a decade, with sparking his environmental activism.

“We’re working toward making the entire building carbon-neutral,” he says. Using recycled materials and designing electrical and plumbing systems to conserve energy and water is adding “millions” to the building’s cost, but Wiatt says that promoting sustainability has become a priority for the agency. “We’re at the platinum level now (for LEED certification), and we hope to go to silver.”

As befits someone who has been described as “friends with everyone and anyone,” Wiatt serves on a host of high-profile boards. But he finds time for his alma mater in his packed schedule. He has been a member of the board of councilors of the USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1993, and has watched the university’s rise in academic stature firsthand.

“Dr. Sample has transformed the school,” he says with admiration. “There’s not a chance I could get in today.”

– Allison Engel