Who is Ynon Kreiz, the new co-CEO of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. company?
By Ramishah Maruf, CNN
New York (CNN) — The CEO who helped bring the “Barbie” movie to the big screen is slated to co-lead the anticipated Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery mega-company.
Ynon Kreiz, the former chief executive of Mattel, will be a co-CEO of the combined company, Paramount chairman and CEO David Ellison announced Wednesday in a press release.
Kreiz’s appointment came shortly after a federal judge approved last week’s settlement, clearing the way for Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. (WBD is the parent company of CNN.)
“In Ynon, I’m adding a partner with strong leadership and the operating firepower this integration demands,” Ellison said in the press release.
Kreiz will start at Paramount on October 5, a day before Paramount expects to close the deal. According to Wednesday’s press release, the two men will share responsibilities: While Ellison “will lead all strategy, creative and technology,” Kreiz “will oversee the Company’s day-to-day operations and integration of the combined businesses.”
The only confirmed members of the merged Paramount-WBD’s board so far are Ellison and Kreiz. They will be part of the list of people who can appoint members of the editorial independence board for CBS News and CNN.
Kreiz has been chairman and CEO of toymaker Mattel since 2018 and, in that time, expanded the company’s famous IP, such as Hot Wheels, into Hollywood movies. It was all part of his broad strategy to transform Mattel’s image from a toy manufacturer to an entertainment powerhouse.
His crown jewel is undeniably the blonde, gleaming Barbie.
Though a Barbie movie had long been discussed, Kreiz told Bloomberg he began focusing on the movie three weeks into joining the company.
Mattel was in a tough spot when Kreiz joined as CEO in 2018, going through a rotating door of chief executives over four years. While brands like Barbie saw a short-lived boost during the pandemic, Kreiz was credited with helping turn the company around with Barbie-mania in 2023.
“Barbie was invented in 1959, but Barbie is so much more than a doll. Barbie is a pop culture icon,” Kreiz said in a Bloomberg interview last year. He added that the character was “the poster child” of the strategy to keep its household names culturally relevant through entertainment.
The “Barbie” movie made history with a $1 billion box office three weeks into opening, and Mattel made over 100 brand deals for the movie, from an insurance commercial to nail polish.
Warner Bros. distributed “Barbie,” which became the company’s highest grossing film in its history.
But the hype wasn’t as sustained, and Kreiz leaves as Mattel faces its own headwinds. Mattel shares dropped 4.24% on Wednesday, and it has been down 36% this year. Though Hot Wheels grew in its latest earnings, Barbie’s total sales dropped 16%.
A seasoned media executive
Kreiz was born in Israel and lived there until he was 26, he told Bloomberg in 2025. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from UCLA.
He’s been described in different articles as a bit of a fitness fanatic. The Los Angeles Times described him as waking up between 4:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. to kiteboard; The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, opened its 2009 profile on Kreiz with him “pounding the cross-trainer.”
Kreiz has always been in show business. He began his career as co-founder, chairman and CEO of Fox Kids Europe NV after meeting Israeli American media mogul Haim Saban. It was eventually sold to Disney.
Before joining Mattel, he was chairman and CEO of Maker Studios, a multi-channel network on YouTube that was also acquired by Disney in 2014. He had also been chairman and CEO of Endemol Group, a television production company that created shows like “Big Brother” and “Deal or No Deal”; and he’d been a general partner at Balderton Capital.
His appointment is a good get for Ellison, Seaport Research Partners Senior Analyst David Joyce said on Bloomberg on Wednesday.
“He does have very good operating chops,” Joyce said. “He also has a lot of global experience. He has branding experience given the Mattel brands. Plus, he has media and entertainment experience.”
Kreiz will be stepping into the a controversial mega-company in the midst of a rapidly changing media landscape. But this could have drawn him to the role in the first place.
“I relish the challenge,” Kreiz said in a 2024 LinkedIn interview about taking the CEO position at Mattel. “I believe in stepping into complicated situations and try to find a way to create or find that economic model that will create value.”
The-CNN-Wire
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