Warner Bros. Discovery Merger: Who’s In The Executive Rankings, Who’s Out

The $40 billion merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery has made it one of the largest pure content players in the media industry.

AT&T’s spinoff officially closed Friday night, and Warner Bros. Discovery will begin trading under the symbol “WBD” on Monday.

Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been working with Warner Bros. since the first offer was presented to us last May. He was chosen as Discovery’s new president. However, questions have been circulating for months about the leadership team he will raise. Earlier this week, it stopped supporting Discovery (something the Deadline report predicted a month ago).

JB Gunnar Wiedenfels, former chief financial officer of Discovery and one of the architects of the merger, will have the same role in the new company, but with a slightly larger scope. Other significant stakes were given to Bruce Campbell, longtime chief revenue and strategy officer; And Kathleen Finch, a former director of lifestyle brands, who now controls all the line networks.

Other key appointments at the new company included four more Discovery veterans: Adria To warn Rome, the head of peoples and cultures; David Livy, Corporate Director; Lori Loki, Chief Accountant; And General Counsel Sawal Sims.

HBO CEO Casey Blois and Warner Bros. film and television chiefs Toby Emerick and Channing Dunge continue to work on the new structure, as do international CEO Gerhard Zeiler. However, the confirmation of the first flight of the executives did not remove all the uncertainty. For example, there is a significant gap at the top of Turner Sports, which Jeff Zucker vacated last February. (His successor, Chris Licht at CNN, has no sports oversight.) As the integration process begins, staff repairs are being considered in many other parts of the empire.

Consolidation creates a broader organizational chart in another round of facilitation for WarnerMedia employees, who have endured many in recent years. The $3 billion savings promised to Wall Street by Discovery means a significant reduction in jobs. Details of this cut, who will stay and who will leave will be in the next step, so stay tuned in the entertainment world for the biggest deal in years.

One thing is clear: the over-the-top regime imposed by former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Killard has largely disappeared, starting with Killard himself. Nine of its 11 direct reports left the company, including network and studio director Anne Sarnoff and broadcast supervisor Andy Forsell. Other departures include CFO Jennifer Beer; Jim Cummings, Head of Human Resources; Christy Hauberger, Vice President of Communications and Head of Engagement; Tony Goncalves, Executive Vice President and Head of Revenue; General Counsel Jim Meza; and chief technology officer Richard Tommy.

Shortly before the announcement of the closing of the transaction, Juan steinlauf A New Advertising Sales Executive has been appointed to the new company. There was no immediate comment on the condition of WarnerMedia ad sales chief JP Colaco. Like Andy Forsell and Richard Tommy, Kolako spent years on Hulu, where Killard directed the CEO. He also held a senior executive position at Vessell, which was founded by YouTube rival Kilar and later sold to Verizon.