Skydance Corp. has established its finance leadership team following the closing of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
David Ellison and his co-CEO, Ynon Kreiz, announced their post-merger executive leadership team in early October, outlining leadership across corporate, business and news operations. On Wednesday, the company finalized its finance leadership team.
“Today we’re announcing the leadership team for Skydance Finance. Each of these leaders brings the experience and judgment to help us build something exceptional, and I’m excited to work alongside them and to share where I think we can take this team from here,” Skydance CFO Dennis Cinelli said in a memo obtained by TheWrap.
He added: “As you’ve heard David [Ellison] say, our goal is to become the next-generation media and entertainment company. We’ll only get there if Finance operates at the highest level and helps drive the business. Every greenlight decision, technology investment, partnership deal and number reported externally depends on the quality of your work.”
According to the memo, here is how that new leadership is shaking out:
Corporate Leaders:
- Kevin Creighton, EVP, Corporate Finance & Treasury, will lead an expanded organization that includes Corporate Finance, Treasury, Strategic Finance, as well as the FP&A and Content Finance & Strategy Centers of Excellence.
- Fraser Woodford, EVP, Treasury at Warner Bros. Discovery, will stay through the end of March to transition work to Kevin’s organization and help us find his successor.
- Todd Davis, EVP, Head of Global Tax will lead our global tax function, managing tax strategy, planning and compliance across all of our businesses and jurisdictions.
- Kathy Gill-Charest, EVP, Controller & Chief Accounting Officer will lead global controllership, including accounting, financial reporting and internal controls for all divisions.
- Sandy Pundmann, EVP & Chief Audit Risk Officer will lead internal audit and risk with a focus on strengthening the controls that protect the company.
- Simon Robinson, EVP & Chief Business Transformation Officer will head up the Integration Management Office, coordinating integration efforts across the company to help us combine our businesses smoothly and capture the full value of the transaction.
Business Unit CFOs:
- Mark Badagliacca, EVP & CFO, Film will lead finance for our film business. He will also lead the Participations & Residuals COE and co-lead the Production Finance COE.
- Patrick Cavanaugh, EVP & CFO, Distribution will lead finance for the distribution and affiliates business.
- Nitin Chawla, EVP & CFO, Global Content Sales will lead finance for our content licensing and home entertainment businesses.
- Adam Cohn, EVP & CFO, CNN will lead finance for CNN news.
- Eric Gray, EVP & CFO, TV Studios will lead finance for our Television Studio businesses, as well as co-lead the Production Finance COE.
- Christine Hong, EVP & CFO of Advertising and Head of Revenue Operations will lead finance for our advertising business and will oversee revenue operations across the company.
- Kedar Nadkarni, EVP, CFO & Head of Strategy and Insights, Consumer Products and Publishing will lead finance across our consumer products, publishing, and DC comics businesses. Kedar will also continue to lead strategy & operations under Josh Silverman, President, Skydance Products and Publishing.
- Ben Paul, EVP & CFO, Games & Experiences will lead finance for our games and experiences businesses.
- Josh Walker, EVP & CFO, Streaming will lead finance for our streaming business.
- Liz Wright, EVP & CFO, Skydance TV Segment will lead finance for our global television networks business.
As the new teams are settled following the merger, Skydance is targeting more than $6 billion in cost savings, which will include an unspecified number of layoffs. Ahead of that, Ellison and Kriez released a memo earlier this week giving some employees the option of a voluntary buyout in a “one-time offer.”
“As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that. To give eligible employees the option to move on in a way that works for them, we are introducing a Voluntary Buyout (VBO) Program,” Ellison and Kreiz told staff in a memo. “Those who qualify will receive an individual communication with their personalized details and terms, and a window to decide whether to accept this one-time offer.”
The post Skydance Finalizes Finance Leadership Following Merger appeared first on TheWrap.
