Bob Pisano to resign as president of the MPAA

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Bob Pisano is stepping down as president and chief operating officer of the Motion Picture Assn. of America after nearly six years on the job.

Pisano’s departure was expected after the board of the MPAA, which acts as Hollywood’s chief lobbying arm on Capitol Hill, tapped former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd as its chairman and chief executive earlier this year.

The MPAA is not expected to fill Pisano’s position.

Pisano, who held the post since 2005, had been a candidate for the top job after Dan Glickman gave up the post last year. Pisano served as the organization’s interim chief executive from January 2010 through March of this year, when, after an extensive search, Dodd was selected to be the group’s new leader.

A former studio and Screen Actors Guild executive, Pisano was known for his strong administrative skills and expertise with piracy and other policy issues important to the MPAA and its members.

But Pisano lacked the political clout in Washington that MPAA’s directors wanted. Dodd, a well-known politician, is trying to restore some of the luster the organization enjoyed when it was run for decades by legendary lobbyist and deal-maker Jack Valenti.

In an email to the MPAA staff announcing his decision, Pisano cited personal reasons for the decision. ‘Though I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to help lead the organization, I’m also increasingly conscious of the fact that I’ve reached that moment in life when quality time with one’s family is an increasingly precious gift,’’ he said. ‘I am delighted that Chris has asked me to act as an advisor after my official departure date, and I have told him I’m willing to help in any way that I can.”

“Bob’s extensive ties to the entertainment community, both as a leading studio executive and as the leader of Hollywood’s largest labor union, have helped him forge new industry partnerships and have raised the profile of the MPAA’s programs both in the United States and abroad,’’ Dodd said in a statement. ‘He has helped guide the MPAA’s worldwide operations at a time of extraordinary technological change and in the face of growing threats to our members’ intellectual property that has been enabled by that change.’

Pisano, 68, previously practiced law in the Los Angeles and Paris office of O’Melveny & Myers.

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-- Richard Verrier