Paramount Chief Technology Officer Phil Wiser is leaving the company after seven years, the executive told employees Friday.
“Writing this and sharing this news is harder than I expected,” Wiser said in his farewell memo, obtained by TheWrap. Wiser will exit at the end of May as part of a planned transition.
In the memo, Wiser shared his plans to return to his Silicon Valley roots, with Business Insider reporting he is looking to work in tech startups.
“Phil has played a meaningful role in shaping our technology strategy during his time here,” Dane Glasgow, Paramount chief product officer, wrote in an email to staffers following Wiser’s announcement.
Wiser joined Paramount in 2018 after previously leading tech efforts at Hearst and Sony. He shepherded the media company through the Viacom-CBS merger, Paramount+’s rebrand, the Paramont-Skydance merger and COVID-19.
The change in leadership comes as Paramount CEO David Ellison takes a tech-forward approach, investing in advancing technology and data capabilities to bolster the legacy media company’s competitiveness in streaming.
Rather than replacing Wiser, his duties will be divided among Laksh Nathan, EVP and chief information officer; Jim Harrison, EVP of infrastructure and media technology; Frank Governale, SVP of production technology and operations; and Carlo Joseph, who has been promoted to chief information security officer. The executives will report to Glasgow.
Read Wiser’s full memo below:
To my Paramount TECH team,
Writing this and sharing this news is harder than I expected.
After seven-plus years together, I have decided to leave Paramount.
But before I do, what I most want to say — the only thing that really matters — is thank you.
Thank you for showing up, every single day, through conditions that would have broken lesser teams.
Thank you for:
- The late nights and the early mornings. For the problems you solved that no one ever saw, and the ones you fixed that kept the whole thing running and got none of the credit.
- Being relentlessly focused on the complete technology and service experience for our internal and external customers.
- Every integration meeting, every migration, every system failure at 2 a.m. that somehow you turned around by dawn.
- Not flinching when COVID hit — keeping our people safe and our voice on the air.
- Protecting the company diligently while building modern, AI-first cybersecurity capabilities.
- Doing whatever was needed to get that show on the air, that production asset delivered, or that promo to pop.
- Streaming all of those live events at record-breaking scale, starting with the Super Bowl in 2019, on infrastructure that was a fraction of what exists today.
- Rebuilding our entire media supply chain, ad tech ecosystem, licensing solutions, and more into genuinely best-in-class technology and operations platforms.
- Embracing the AI opportunity early and bringing others along to advance our capabilities.
- Giving us one final win together — Oracle Fusion in just 15 months, a feat almost no organization at our scale has pulled off.
- While delivering on all of this for Paramount, you also kept innovation, technical excellence, and user experience at the forefront of our efforts.
I saw all of it. Every bit of it. You set the company up for real success going forward.
But what I am most grateful for is not the accomplishments — as remarkable as they are. It is the people. The culture of this team. The way you solve hard problems together. The way you hold each other up through wave after wave of change and uncertainty. The way you have consistently shown what is possible when talented, good people commit to something. That is what I will carry with me.
The challenges coming down the road are real. The pace of change in technology, in AI, in how content is made and distributed — it is only accelerating. The work ahead will be demanding. None of that is new to this team.
I want to be clear about something: you are exceptionally well-positioned for everything ahead of you. The foundation we built together — the infrastructure, the platforms, the operational discipline, the AI capabilities we put in place — is not just solid. It is a genuine competitive advantage. You have done the hard work. You know how to do this.
As for me, I am heading back to my Silicon Valley tech roots to advance some ideas on enterprise AI. More to come on that at a later time. Needless to say, I remain energized and excited about the possibilities emerging in this AI revolution.
Seven years. What a journey.
It has been the honor of a lifetime to work alongside every one of you. And I will be cheering you on as I dive into what’s next.
I am here through the end of May and hope to see many of you in the coming weeks to say farewell. You can always find me online — please stay in touch.
Stay Scrappy!
Phil
Read Glasgow’s note to staff below:
All – I just wanted to write a quick note thanking Phil for his incredible leadership over the past seven years.
Phil has played a meaningful role in shaping our technology strategy during his time here, advancing our technical and digital capabilities, all while helping to strengthen the technology foundations as we scaled our global direct-to-consumer business. He was also integral to driving the integration of Viacom and CBS, helping to unify systems, teams, and platforms in support of a more cohesive and efficient organization. His leadership has further contributed to the modernization of our platforms and the integration of data and technology across our brands.
As part of this planned transition, Laksh Nathan (EVP, Chief Information Officer), Jim Harrison (EVP, Infrastructure & Media Technology) and Frank Governale (SVP, Production Technology & Operations) will continue in their current roles and Carlo Joseph will take on the expanded role of EVP, Chief Information Security Officer, all reporting directly to me. We are also aligning content operations under Jon Mantell’s leadership.
We are grateful for Phil’s contributions and the impact he has made across the organization. Please join me in thanking him for his leadership and wishing him the best in his next chapter.
Cheers!
Dane
