President & Chief Executive, Warner Bros. Discovery

Zaslav is Hollywood’s newest “celebrity CEO” with his smaller but balance-sheet-strong Discovery Inc. acquiring the Warner Bros. studio and HBO in April for $43 billion to form Warner Bros. Discovery. He gets attention for having more executive reports directly than under prior WB-HBO owner AT&T. He promises to strip out overhead costs and wants ratings-challenged Cable News Network reoriented to middle-of-the-road news instead of advocacy. He stands out for wearing his signature outdoorsy-casual Western vests. Head of reality TV giant Discovery since 2007, he is a protege of savvy Discovery investor and insider John Malone. Zaslav started at NBCUniversal and earlier was a private practice lawyer.

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