Former PricewaterhouseCoopers CEO Samuel Di Piazza Jr. Tuesday was namedChairman of Warner Bros. Discovery. Di Piazza was one of seven picks for the 13-member board by AT&T, which is spinning off WarnerMedia ahead of a merger with Discovery.
As part of the merger deal, Discovery Inc. will name six of its own directors to the board — they are expected to include current Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who will retain that title in the newly merged company.
In addition to Di Piazza, AT&T named former BET Networks chair and CEO Debra L. Lee; Li Haslett Chen, founder and CEO of tech platform Narrativ; Richard Fisher, senior adviser to Barclays PLC; Sixth Street Partners senior adviser Fazal Merchant; and former Macy’s CFO Paula Price; and Redpoint Ventures founding partner Geoffrey Yang.
“We are delighted to have assembled a diverse slate of world-class directors for the Warner Bros. Discovery Board,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement. “These respected leaders bring a wealth of experience in finance, technology, media and entertainment, international trade, venture capital, and digital and direct-to-consumer platforms that is vitally important to the future of Warner Bros. Discovery. They are committed to the company’s success while providing best-in-class corporate governance.”
Di Piazza, Lee and Yang will resign from their current roles on AT&T’s board of directors when the WarnerMedia transaction closes, which is expected to happen as soon as next month.
On Monday, Discovery reported that Zaslav’s executive compensation package increased more than sixfold to $246 million in 2021, from $37.7 million, according to a company regulatory filing.