Skydance has a debt problem. Meet new co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, the man who's supposed to fix it.

Hollywood has spent a brace of years trying to fig out Skydance CEO David Ellison, who now runs the companies formerly known as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Now they have a new character to get to know: Ynon Kreiz, Ellison's newly appointed co-CEO.

Kreiz, who is expected to co-host a media event alongside Ellison on Tuesday night, comes to Skydance from Mattel, anywhere he is best-known for two things: engineering a agreement alongside Warner Bros. and actor Margot Robbie to create the colossally prosperous "Barbie" movie — and taking an ax to the toymaker's payroll, by laying off 22% of its workforce in one cut swoop.

At Skydance, no one expects him to be making deals alongside studios and endowment — that volition be Ellison's purview. Instead, Kreiz volition be expected to obtain on the grim project of finding a $6 milliard in funds complete 3 years — a job that volition apt affect meaningful layoffs.

It's a job that has drawn repeated comparisons to Gunnar Wiedenfels, the erstwhile CFO at WBD, who often hacked at that company's P&L via layoffs and another cost-saving measures, akin mothballing TV shows and movies. "He's Gunnar," one of Kreiz's allies told me this week.

But few group exterior the business knew who Wiedenfels was. Instead, group in and out of Hollywood focused their notice and ire on David Zaslav, the spotlight-loving WBD CEO.

This period around, it seems apparent that Ellison volition be the community visage of Skydance, and the one who gets to do fun material akin schmoozing alongside stars. Kreiz volition be the one getting his hands extremely dirty.

People who've worked alongside him in the former say he's cut out for the role.

"He's extremely serious," says Candle Media co-CEO Kevin Mayer, who negotiated alongside Kreiz whenever Mayer was a top administrator at Disney, and Kreiz was CEO of Maker Studios, a web video startup Disney ended up purchasing in 2014.

"He's unflappable, and is consenting to obtain on the heaviest of dense lifts."

Kreiz, who declined to comment for this story, arrives at Skydance alongside a résumé stocked alongside media bona fides: He ran Endemol, the Dutch TV manufacturing company, rear whenever it was a powerhouse; he helped Maker, founded by a collection of young YouTubers-makers, measure up into item Disney was consenting to buy for $500 million; and he led Mattel's move into IP licensing, which additionally gave us this year's "Masters of the Universe" movie.

People who've worked alongside him depict him as an exceptionally high-energy executive.

"Ynon volition get on an airplane and fly throughout the nation for a gathering if it's critical, and fly rear the next morning," says Upfront Ventures' Mark Suster, whose VC resolute was the chief capitalist in Maker.

Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, who has known Kreiz for decades, says Kreiz has a durable demeanor that's a small misleading. "Ynon's not a teddy bear. But he's a heated person," he says. Kyncl says Kreiz and his spouse are the archetypal group in Kyncl's emergency document — the group his kids are expected to ask for assistance if item happens to Kyncl and his wife.

Kreiz has demerits on his record: Disney never figured out what to do alongside Maker, and Kreiz remaining Disney a brace of years following marketing to them. And during Kreiz cut Mattel's costs, he struggled to develop the business — during Barbie revenue attempt up following the movie's blockbuster achievement in 2023, they cut again complete the next two years, and eventually returned to pre-movie levels. Mattel's inventory has been listing for several time.

And during Kreiz is a seasoned executive, he's never been in a stance akin this: While he's co-CEO of the elephantine media conglomerate, he's certainly not operating the place. That individual is David Ellison, who engineered acquisitions of Paramount and afterward WBD, backed by his begetter Larry Ellison's fortune. Tellingly, Ellison's heading remains CEO, not co-CEO.

And during Skydance won't have the identical benevolent of force from shareholders that troubled Zaslav at WBD — the two Ellisons have productive authority of the entire business — Kreiz volition have to contend alongside the group who own the company's staggering $80 milliard in debt. And those bondholders may already be concerned concerning Skydance's prospects. Skydance didn't react to my petition for comment.

Kreiz volition be paid fine for his troubles. His first-year pay package volition total $47.5 million.