The merged Skydance television and direct-to-consumer operation now has a clearer leadership chart—and a shorter senior payroll. JB Perrette, co-chair and chief business officer of Skydance TV and Skydance Direct-to-Consumer, named his full team in a Thursday memo and confirmed that seven senior executives from the legacy Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount operations will not join the combined company.
The new leadership spine
Perrette had already announced Jay Askanasi for advertising, Ray Hopkins for distribution and David Decker for content sales. The latest memo adds global functional leaders: Jeff Cusson for DTC communications, Shauna Spenley as CMO of global DTC and international TV, Trey Turner as COO international, Josh Walker as COO DTC, and Liz Wright as CFO of the Skydance TV segment.
Pluto and ad-supported streaming will get a dedicated leader later. Until that search finishes, Olivier Jollet, Will Gurman and Kevin Kroll report to Walker and Perrette on an interim basis.
The departing group spans both legacy companies:
- From the Warner Bros. Discovery side: Dan Barnes, Michael Bishara, Jamie Cooke and Juan Sola.
- From the Paramount side: Domenic DiMeglio, Marco Nobili and Pank Patel.
Perrette said their work “has been instrumental to the success of the DTC and/or TV businesses.”
Why the regional layer matters
Four regional leaders will report directly to Perrette: Andrew Georgiou for Europe and Africa on an interim basis, James Gibbons for APAC and MENA, Kasia Kieli for Poland, and Fernando Medin for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic. These teams will own distribution, ad sales, business development and TV programming in their markets, while marketing and communications carry dotted-line relationships into country general managers.
For media planners and streaming marketers, that is the signal to watch. A global CMO can standardise positioning and pricing, but the regional presidents and managing directors are the ones who will negotiate local distribution and ad partnerships. Perrette wrote that the goal is to make the setup “a powerful network vs. a dreaded matrix”—so the practical balance of power will be settled over the next few quarters.
What to do about it
First, refresh account maps. A legacy WBD or Paramount contact may no longer own the same decision. Second, treat Pluto and AVOD as a near-term priority: the vacant leadership role signals that ad-supported streaming is getting more focus, not less. Third, prepare for more changes. Perrette himself cautioned that the structure will need “further clarifications and refinements.”
Ronald Goes, previously president of international TV production at Warner Bros. Discovery, will move under Warner Bros. TV Group chair Channing Dungey, adding Skydance’s international TV production to her oversight.
Source: Variety
