Paramount Global Proposes Dawn Ostroff for Board as It Ups Bob Bakish’s Pay to $31.5 Million

Paramount Global is shuffling its board of directors, including the proposed addition of former Spotify and Condé Nast executive Dawn Ostroff, who will serve as an independent director, the company announced Friday as it filed its annual proxy statement. The filing also noted that Bob Bakish could make as much as $31.5 million under a new pay package.

Ostroff’s appointment is pending a stockholder vote that will take place at Paramount’s 2023 annual shareholder meeting later this year. She left Spotify as the music streamer announced layoffs earlier this year.

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Bakish, who serves as Paramount Global’s president could receive a pay boost to $31.5 million as a result of $16 million stock grant. His cash salary will remain $3.1 million. There were other pay raises across the board, including CFO Naveen Chopra getting a $2.5 million boost to $6.5 million, and VP Christa D’Alimonte’s pay package rising to $5.7 million, which also is $2.5 million more than what she received in 2021.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dawn to Paramount’s Board at such an exciting moment in our evolution,” Paramount chair Shari Redstone said in a press release. “We believe her leadership, diverse expertise in content strategy and her long track record of driving transformation will prove invaluable as we seek to continue building on the success of Paramount’s global multiplatform strategy.”

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Ostroff served as chief content and advertising business officer at Spotify from 2018 to 2023. During that time she oversaw the company’s music and audio content business in addition to Spotify’s global advertising business.

The company also announced that directors Candace Beinecke and Ronald Nelson would step down at the annual meeting on May 8, 2023.

“We are deeply grateful to Candace and Ron for their years of dedicated service and partnership,” Redstone continued. “Their guidance and expertise were instrumental in navigating key milestones and evolving the Company to compete and lead in today’s media landscape.”

Besides Ostroff, all of the other nominees for Paramount’s board currently serve as directors.