Jim Kohlberg is Chairman of Essential Entertainment.  Kohlberg is actively involved in the greenlight and development stages for projects, some of which could be sold by the company.  Kohlberg has executive produced four films, two of which have won festival prizes:  Two Family House, the 2000 Sundance Film Festival Audience Winner, and Runaway, winner of the 2005 Austin Film Festival.  Kohlberg is currently executive producing  a documentary chronicling Dalton Trumbo's life during the HUAC and blacklisted years.  This feature length documentary stars Donald Sutherland, David Strathairn, Paul Giamatti, Joan Allen, Kirk and Michael Douglas, and Liam Neeson, among others.

Kohlberg is a founder of Kohlberg & Company, a leading U.S. private equity firm, which acquires "middle market" companies (valued from $100 to $500 million).  As Chairman, he was sole managing partner from 1994 to 2005, and co-managing partner from 2005 to 2007. Since its inception in 1987, the firm has organized six private equity funds and several collateralized loan obligation funds through its subsidiary Kohlberg Capital, now a public entity. Its six private equity funds have raised $3.7 billion of committed capital. The firm’s objective has been to realize substantial capital gains through control investments in a diversified portfolio of companies. The firm has completed more than 80 platform and add-on acquisitions with an aggregate value of more than $5.0 billion.