Skydance Names Communications Leaders as Seven Executives Depart

Skydance Chief Communications Officer Melissa Zukerman has set out the senior structure of the combined company’s communications operation in a memo to staff, as leadership appointments continue following the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, which closed three weeks earlier. Seven communications executives are leaving the company.

The four senior appointments are Laura Watson, overseeing corporate, executive and strategic communications; Shannon Buck, leading corporate communications and media relations; Virginia Fout, responsible for global and executive events; and Deborah Marcus, heading corporate social responsibility. Watson and Marcus joined Paramount in 2025, while Buck previously led communications for Paramount+ and Fout ran an events company.

Those departing are Dennis Williams, Heather Wagoner, Karen Shosfy, Adrienne O’Hara, Megan Klein, Arielle Falkowitz and Joe Libonati. Zukerman thanked the departing staff in her memo.

The communications operation will include a corporate communications function working with teams across the businesses. The company is also creating a Direct to Market function to expand executive storytelling through its own platforms and explore other channels and formats.

Zukerman said the communications team would support priorities set by co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz: building Skydance as a leading home for storytellers, developing its direct-to-consumer platform, and improving its linear television business, anchored by CBS. She also emphasized maintaining relationships with journalists and communicating in a candid, fact-based way.