Centerview Partners has appointed Skip Paul, a media and entertainment veteran, as a senior adviser in its advisory practice.
Paul will be a key participant in Centerview’s expansion in the media and entertainment sectors, and will be based in Centerview’s Los Angeles office.
Paul has achieved success across an array of sectors from motion picture and video games to theme parks and social networking companies.
He brings to Centerview transactional and operational experience working with both established and emerging companies and management teams.
"Skip has been a friend and client for over 20 years," says Adam Chinn, a co-founder of Centerview Partners. "He has earned the highest level of respect in the media and entertainment industry, and has the objective judgment and a command of the business garnered from his deep experience. It is with great enthusiasm, both personal and professional, that we welcome him to Centerview Partners."
"After 30 years in the entertainment business, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join this experienced team at Centerview to provide both independent and high level advice which I value as an executive," adds Paul.
Paul started his business career at Atari, where he rose to president of the Atari Coin-operated Game Company, a division with annual revenues of over USD100m generated from popular coin-operated consoles including Asteroids and Centipede.
After negotiating the sale of this business to Namco of Japan, he made his foray into the movie industry joining MCA in 1985. For the next decade, Paul served as president of MCA Enterprise and executive vice president of MCA Inc.
In 1995, Paul teamed with Steven Spielberg as co-founder and chairman of the national location-based entertainment chain Sega Gameworks. Next, as chairman of internet entertainment destination IFILM, he oversaw the start-up’s growth and sale to Viacom’s MTV.
Paul also served as interim chief executive of National Golf Properties, a NYSE-listed owner and operator of more than 400 golf courses, and supervised the restructuring of over USD600m in debt. He was also a founding investor in Flektor, a software developer specialising in social networking applications that was sold to News Corp. just 12 months after inception.
Centerview Partners, based in New York, operates an investment banking advisory practice and a private equity business.
