Paramount’s Dan Cohen Elected Chair of DEG’s Board of Directors

DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group is marking its 25th anniversary with a new board that will include Dan Cohen, chief content licensing officer at Paramount Global, as chair and Google’s Jonathan Zepp as vice chair.

Andrea Downing of PBS Distribution will serve as CFO, while Rick Hack of Intel will be the board’s secretary, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Jim Wuthrich has been elected chair emeritus. The officers of the DEG Board were elected to a two-year term and will serve through July 2024.

Further, AWS, a new DEG member company, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, a returning member, are newly represented directors on the DEG Board. AWS is represented by Chris Blandy, and Sony Pictures is represented by Jason Spivak. A+E Networks and Fandango/Vudu are long-standing members returning to the board. They are represented by Mark Garner and Mark Young, respectively.

The board also includes two seats representing DEG’s two Alliances, the D2C Alliance (D2CA) and the Advanced Content Delivery Alliance (ACDA). The Board D2CA director is Adam Lewinson of Tubi, while the ACDA Board director is Bill Neighbors of Xperi Holding Corporation.

The directors appointed Robin Tarufelli of Deloitte as a Special Board Advisor for the 2022-23 term.

Cohen said: “I’m delighted that DEG membership is evolving to reflect the increasingly global nature of the digital entertainment ecosystem. The new board is committed to serving all DEG members and to providing the membership even more opportunities for collaboration, education and networking across industry sectors and across borders.”

Amy Jo Smith, DEG president and CEO, said: “We welcome all of our new DEG board directors and are thrilled about our expanding base of companies based outside the U.S. I’m grateful that they see the value of membership in DEG, which is committed to continuing to deliver high return on investment for members evolving into global providers of direct-to-consumer entertainment.”