Skydance Names Finance Leaders for Combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery

Skydance Corp., the company created from David Ellison's merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, has named the team that will run its finance operations. Chief Financial Officer Dennis Cinelli, previously the finance chief at Paramount Skydance, announced the lineup in a memo to staff on Wednesday morning, according to a copy obtained by Variety.

The combined business is expected to generate annual revenue of nearly $70 billion on a pro-forma basis and carry net debt of around $80 billion. The finance group is expected to play a central role in the company's plan to reach $6 billion in annualized cost savings, an effort that is expected to include several rounds of layoffs.

Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, co-CEO of Skydance, had already announced the senior leadership team a day before the deal officially closed. Since then, individual business units and corporate groups have been revealing their own executive lineups.

In the memo, Cinelli thanked employees who "put in extraordinary effort to support the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery." He also praised the legacy Warner Bros. Discovery finance team, writing that "you kept the business performing through a long period of not knowing how this would end. That takes discipline, and it didn't go unnoticed." He said the new structure "reflects the strengths of both organizations and puts the right leaders in the right places."

On the corporate side, Kevin Creighton, EVP of Corporate Finance and Treasury, will lead an expanded organization covering corporate finance, treasury, strategic finance, financial planning and analysis, and content finance and strategy. He will also oversee investor relations on an interim basis while the company searches for a new head of that function. Fraser Woodford, EVP of Treasury at Warner Bros. Discovery, will stay through the end of March 2027 to transition work and help find his successor. Todd Davis will lead global tax, Kathy Gill-Charest will serve as controller and chief accounting officer, and Sandy Pundmann will be chief audit risk officer. Simon Robinson, as chief business transformation officer, will head an Integration Management Office that coordinates the combining of the businesses.

Business unit CFOs will report both to Cinelli and to their respective unit heads. They are Mark Badagliacca for film, Patrick Cavanaugh for distribution, Nitin Chawla for global content sales, Adam Cohn for CNN, Eric Gray for TV studios, Christine Hong for advertising and revenue operations, Kedar Nadkarni for consumer products, publishing and DC comics, Ben Paul for games and experiences, Josh Walker for streaming, and Liz Wright for the television segment. Separately, Bryon Rubin is leaving his post as CFO of TV Media to become COO of Skydance Television.

Cinelli also set out six pillars to guide the finance organization: getting the basics right, including fast and accurate closes and full compliance; setting plans that drive accountability; partnering closely with business leaders; deciding with data and AI; telling the financial story to stakeholders and investors; and building a talent factory for future company leaders.

"There will be challenges as we integrate businesses and keep raising the bar, but I have great confidence in this team," Cinelli wrote. "What we do matters, and how we do it matters even more." He added that the company's goal, as Ellison has described it, is to become the next-generation media and entertainment company, which depends on finance operating at the highest level.