Skydance Names Its Finance Team Three Weeks After Warner Bros. Discovery Deal Closes

Skydance has named the finance leaders who will run the money side of its newly combined company. The appointments were set out in a memo to staff from Dennis Cinelli, Skydance's chief financial officer, as Variety reported on 28 October 2026.

The memo follows the close of the deal that brought Warner Bros. Discovery into the Skydance group. Paramount announced the completion on 6 October 2026, creating what it called a new global entertainment company. The new parent is called Skydance Corp. David Ellison, who founded Skydance Media in 2010, is its chairman and chief executive, and Ynon Kreiz is co-CEO.

The deal included $47 billion of new equity investment, meaning fresh money in exchange for ownership stakes. The Larry Ellison family, RedBird and sovereign wealth funds, which are state-owned investment pools, led that round, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Kevin Creighton is now executive vice-president for corporate finance and treasury. Treasury is the team that manages cash and borrowing. His remit also covers financial planning, the budget and forecasting unit, and content finance. He will also run investor relations, the team that deals with shareholders and analysts, on an interim basis while Skydance looks for a permanent head.

Kathy Gill-Charest has been named executive vice-president, controller and chief accounting officer. She will oversee the company's books, financial reporting and internal controls, the checks that keep those numbers accurate.

Sandy Pundmann becomes chief audit risk officer, leading internal audit and risk. Todd Davis will head global tax. Simon Robinson, the chief business transformation officer, will run the Integration Management Office, the group that oversees how the two businesses are brought together.

Fraser Woodford, Warner Bros. Discovery's treasury chief, will stay until the end of March 2027. His job is to pass his work to Creighton's team.

The scale of the task is large. Skydance projects $6 billion in annualised cost savings, meaning the yearly savings it expects once the changes are fully in place. The combined company is projected to have annual revenue of nearly $70 billion on a pro-forma basis, which means calculated as if the two businesses had been together for a full year. It also expects net debt of around $80 billion, which is total borrowing minus cash on hand. Those figures come from Variety's report.

For the people working in these departments, the memo settles who answers for what. Many of the roles are new, and several sit alongside people who came over from Warner Bros. Discovery. The handover period runs to the end of March next year, which gives the two teams several months to work side by side.