David Ellison this week tapped Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz to serve as co-CEO of Paramount Skydance, making him responsible for day-to-day operations and the integration of the company’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The appointment gives one of Hollywood’s biggest media combinations to a leader whose career has been built on unconventional bets. Kreiz helped turn Mattel from a toy maker into an entertainment and intellectual-property company centered on franchises and fans, and one of his most visible risks was backing a Barbie feature film.
Kreiz’s track record also includes a hiring decision that says as much about his management style as any boardroom deal. In a commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, he said he noticed a barista at a local cafe for his 'efficiency and engagement with customers.' Kreiz said he asked the man where he was from, learned he was an Iranian refugee with a degree in computer science, and then introduced him to Mattel. The company hired him as an intern, and he later became 'one of its highest performers.' He now works full-time on Mattel’s global technology team.
For Kreiz, the story became a lesson in human judgment at a time when more hiring and work is moving online. He told graduates that 'personal interactions and casual conversations are more important than ever' and said that 'human connection is mankind’s greatest superpower.'
Kreiz’s path to this point started in Israel, where he grew up in what he has described as a middle-class family. His father worked as an engineer and his mother as a psychologist. He later completed Israel’s mandatory two-year military service, earned an undergraduate degree in economics and management from Tel Aviv University, and received an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in 1993.
At UCLA, Kreiz met media mogul Haim Saban. The two eventually founded Fox Kids Europe, which Kreiz ran from London before selling the business to Disney in 2002. He later led Endemol, the Dutch producer behind 'Big Brother,' then moved into venture capital. In 2012, he took over Maker Studios when it was nearly out of cash and later sold the company to Disney for $500 million.
He joined Mattel’s board in 2016 and became CEO in 2018 after the company had cycled through four CEOs in four years. At Mattel, Kreiz pushed the 81-year-old company toward a model built around intellectual property, not just toys. That included the Barbie film, which he said began with a script that portrayed Mattel as 'the worst in corporate America' and him as 'a chauvinist buffoon.' He said he still backed the film anyway.
Capital rewards clear rules and decisive judgment. Kreiz’s rise suggests David Ellison wanted both for a sprawling media deal that now demands execution, not just ambition. The market has already voted with its size: a $110 billion takeover leaves little room for hesitation.
For shareholders, the question is whether the same instinct that spotted promise in a cafe barista can also navigate a hard integration inside Paramount Skydance. For everyone else, the lesson is simpler: in an economy increasingly shaped by screens and algorithms, the people who still look up may see opportunities the bureaucracy never would.
