David Ellison Names Co-CEO of Merged Paramount
Ynon Kreiz, former head of Mattel, will become co-CEO of Paramount WBD starting October 5. Ellison will retain the positions of chairman and CEO, while Kreiz will take on operational management.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison announced that Ynon Kreiz will take the post of co-CEO of the merged company Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The appointment will take effect upon the closing of the merger, expected next week, the company said.
Ellison will retain his positions as chairman of the board of directors and CEO. Kreiz will become co-CEO and join the board of directors. He will start his new role on October 5.
Kreiz has just stepped down as CEO of Mattel after eight years at the helm of the company. Under his leadership, Mattel underwent a business transformation and restructured its strategy around brands.
The division of responsibilities between the two executives looks as follows: Ellison will focus on long-term strategy and vision — relationships with talent, strategic partnerships, technology, and capital allocation. Kreiz will take on day-to-day operational management.
"The combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to create a next-generation media company of global scale is a transformational moment for our industry. Leading it requires a rare combination of strategic vision, operational depth, and experience running a public company at the highest level of the media industry. Ynon has all three. I am adding to the team a partner with the strong leadership and operational horsepower this integration demands," Ellison said.
The dual-CEO model mirrors the approach of Netflix — the streaming giant and direct competitor of Paramount. The company is currently co-led by Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. Notably, it was Netflix itself that had previously been in merger talks with Warner Bros. Discovery, but the deal fell apart earlier this year amid Paramount's competing bid.
The merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is valued at $110 billion. The deal has not been formally completed yet, but the combined company is already generating a steady stream of news through its personnel decisions.
Alongside Kreiz's appointment, the company announced the departure of Cindy Holland, head of the Paramount+ streaming service. She is leaving the company before the closing of the merger. Casey Bloys, head of HBO, will lead the streaming division of the combined company.
For the market, personnel shake-ups of this scale ahead of the formal closing of the deal signal that the new management structure is being put in place early. The division of roles between Ellison and Kreiz — strategy versus operations — aligns with the practice Netflix has applied since 2020, when Sarandos and Peters jointly succeeded company founder Reed Hastings as co-CEOs.
Kreiz's arrival also means bringing his experience in brand transformation to Paramount: over his eight years at Mattel, he restructured the toy giant's business around franchise content, including film projects based on the company's brands. In the merged media corporation, this experience will come in handy when managing a portfolio that includes film studios, streaming platforms, and television assets.
The coming weeks will show how quickly the integration of the two media holdings will be reflected in the content strategy and positioning of the combined company's streaming services in a competitive market, where Netflix holds the lead in subscriber numbers.
Original: ir.paramount.com
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