President and Chief Executive, Warner Bros. Discovery

Zaslav is rocking the Hollywood boat with cost cutting and by side-stepping industry conventions. He directs his Warner Bros. studio to license library content to streaming competitors instead of keeping it in-house, pushing profits over market share, including at HBO Max, and not indulging Hollywood talent on passion projects. Zaslav faces headwinds of a weak advertising sales climate and having to slash a burdensome $50 billion in gross debt, which piled up when his Discovery merged with Warner Media a year ago. Formerly head of reality TV giant Discovery since 2007, Zaslav is a protege of famed media investor John Malone.

YEARS ON THE LA500: 2