David Ellison has appointed former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO of Skydance, giving the soon-to-be-combined studio a second executive with public-company leadership experience and settling a key question about how the merged company will be run.
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David Ellison has brought in Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO of Skydance, sharing the top executive title rather than appointing a deputy below him. The arrangement is unusual in large media companies, where a single CEO normally holds final operating authority, and it directly addresses the governance question that has followed the Skydance–Paramount transaction: who besides Ellison would carry day-to-day responsibility. Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has led Skydance since 2010 and has been the public face of the deal that folds Paramount Global's assets into the studio. Kreiz's arrival means the combined company will be represented by two executives rather than one at the moment it begins operating as a single business.
Kreiz is best known for his tenure as chairman and CEO of Mattel, the toy company he joined in 2018, where he pushed a strategy of converting toy brands into film and television franchises. That approach produced the 2023 theatrical release of Barbie, a global box-office hit that gave Mattel a template for monetizing intellectual property across screens and merchandise. Before Mattel, Kreiz ran the digital network Maker Studios and held senior roles at Endemol and Fox Kids Europe, giving him a background spanning brand management, production and international television distribution. Those three areas sit at the center of what a studio-and-networks combination is expected to do, which helps explain why Ellison chose him rather than an executive from the financial or distribution side of the business.
The merged company answers to shareholders well beyond the Ellison family and RedBird Capital, the investors who backed the Skydance side of the transaction. That creates a governance question largely absent at Skydance itself, which was privately held and where Ellison's authority was not subject to public-market scrutiny. Adding a second CEO with experience running a listed company gives the combined business an executive who has already answered to a board and to quarterly reporting requirements. Co-CEO arrangements can also serve as a signal to investors that authority is deliberately shared rather than concentrated in one person, which matters when a founder-affiliated executive holds the largest single voice.
Shared chief-executive roles exist in media and technology, but they tend to be defined by a clear split of duties rather than an equal claim on every decision. Netflix operated with two co-CEOs after Reed Hastings moved to executive chairman, and Salesforce ran with Marc Benioff and Keith Block sharing the title between 2018 and 2020 before Block departed — both cases showing that the structure depends on whether reporting lines and decision rights are spelled out. In practice, one executive often takes the investor, board and external-facing role while the other runs operations, content or integration. When those boundaries stay vague, the arrangement tends to be tested during budget fights or senior hires, which is why observers typically look for a written allocation of responsibilities rather than the title alone.
Ynon Kreiz is a media and consumer-products executive who served as chairman and CEO of Mattel starting in 2018, where he led an effort to turn the company's toy brands into film and television franchises. Before Mattel he ran the digital network Maker Studios and held senior positions at Endemol and Fox Kids Europe. He has now been appointed co-CEO of Skydance alongside David Ellison.
A co-CEO structure places two executives at the top of a company rather than one, usually with duties divided by function — for example, one handling operations and content while the other handles strategy, finance or external relations. It differs from a deputy role because both carry the chief-executive title and typically both report to the board. The arrangement's stability usually depends on whether decision rights are clearly written down before conflicts arise.
Skydance was privately held, so David Ellison's authority was not subject to public shareholder scrutiny in the way a listed company's leadership is. The combination with Paramount Global creates a larger, publicly traded business with a board, reporting obligations and investors outside the Ellison family and RedBird Capital. A second CEO with experience running a listed company addresses the governance question of who else holds operational authority.
A Second Chief Executive at the Top
Who Is Ynon Kreiz?
Why the Structure Draws Attention
How Co-CEO Arrangements Usually Work
What Remains to Be Detailed
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The appointment leaves several operational questions that companies generally address through filings, internal memos or an eventual organizational chart. Among them are which divisions report to Kreiz, whether he holds a board seat, and how decisions are escalated when the two co-CEOs disagree. For a combination that involves integrating a legacy Hollywood studio with a newer production and animation operation, the practical division of labor matters more than the title itself, because integration decisions touch thousands of employees and long-term output agreements. Kreiz's consumer-products and franchise background points toward a role centered on brand exploitation and commercial strategy, while Ellison has historically been identified with production and technology-driven filmmaking. How those two emphases are formally divided will shape how the combined company is managed, not merely how it is announced.
At Mattel, Kreiz pursued a strategy of treating the company's toy brands as intellectual property that could be adapted into films, television and consumer products. The most visible result was the 2023 Barbie theatrical release, which became a major global box-office success and demonstrated the franchise model he had been building. That track record is relevant to a studio business that depends on exploiting characters and brands across multiple formats.
They are relatively rare, though not unprecedented in media and technology. Netflix used a co-CEO structure after Reed Hastings became executive chairman, and Salesforce had two co-CEOs between 2018 and 2020. These cases are often watched closely because shared authority can create ambiguity during budget decisions, senior hires or periods of integration.
