Jacobus Petrus "Koos" Bekker is a South African media tycoon and chairman of leading emerging markets media group Naspers. He also served as the company’s CEO before stepping down as CEO in 2014. The company operates in 130 countries and is listed on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges, and has the largest market capitalization of any media company outside the US and China. He is worth an estimated $2.3 billion.

After a few years in advertising, he went on to study an MBA degree at Columbia Business School, graduating in 1984.

Following the completion of his project, he, and a few young colleagues founded one of the first two pay television services outside the US. M-Net and its sister companies like Multichoice eventually spread across 48 countries Africa.

In the 1990s, he was a founding director of mobile communication company MTN. In 1997 Bekker became CEO of Naspers, one of the initial investors in the M-Net/Multichoice group. Naspers bought out the other shareholders.

During his time as CEO of Naspers, the market capitalization of the company grew from about $1.2 billion to $45 billion. His compensation package was unusual in that for fifteen years as CEO he earned no salary, bonus or perks. He was compensated solely via stock option grants that vested over time.

The company also has their presence in Europe, China, India, Latin America and Russia.