Eric Schmidt’s Split With Advisor Reveals Complex Deals With Ex-Girlfriends

As résumés go, Derek Rundell’s is a doozy. The self-described serial entrepreneur briefly worked as a consultant for Michael Jackson, the late pop star, and he wrote, directed and acted in “Zombie Sitter,” a low-budget movie about a preteen navigating a post-apocalyptic world following a meteor shower that has turned the population into the walking dead.

But in 2013, Rundell started working for a powerful client: Eric Schmidt, a longtime former Google CEO who was then the tech giant’s executive chair. Initially, Rundell’s responsibilities for Schmidt were relatively modest: He helped arrange the billionaire’s accommodations and entertainment at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, which Schmidt regularly attends, according to documents filed in court and people familiar with the working engagement.