getty images

In 1995, Mark Getty and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein co-founded Getty Investments LLC. Mark Getty is the company's chairman.

In September 1997, Getty Communications, as it was called at the time, merged with PhotoDisc, Inc. to form Getty Images.

In April 2003, Getty Images entered into a partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to market each other's images.

Getty Images acquired the Michael Ochs Archives in February 2007. The Michael Ochs Archives were described by The New York Times as "the premier source of musician photography in the world".

In 2008, the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman (H&F) acquired Getty Images.

In 2012, H&F put Getty up for sale. As of the ensuing sale to Carlyle Group, the company was said to have an archive that included 80 million stills and illustrations.

In 2015, Jonathan Klein became the company's chairman and Dawn Airey was hired as Chief executive officer (CEO) of Getty Images.

Mark Harris Getty, KBE (born July 9, 1960) is a British-born Irish businessman and co-founder of Getty Images. A member of the Getty family, which originally made its money from oil, he is the son of American-British billionaire philanthropist Sir John Paul Getty, Jr.