MGM Studios CEO and Leadership

Christopher Brearton, Chief Operating Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., (MGM), joined the company in February 2018 and oversees MGM’s global business operations as well as the legendary studio’s business development and strategic growth initiatives.

Brearton comes to MGM from the entertainment powerhouse law firm, Latham & Watkins, where he was the Managing Partner of the firm's Century City office. His tenure there saw Brearton build an internationally acclaimed Entertainment, Sports and Media practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, complex financing transactions, media rights licensing, and overall business and operational counseling.

For nearly twenty years, Brearton has represented MGM in several critical capacities as a lawyer and counsel to the MGM executive team, including all of MGM’s transformative activities over the last eight years, such as: MGM’s acquisition of United Artists Media Group; MGM’s acquisition of EPIX, which added a premier pay television network and distribution platform for MGM’s growing slate of new film and television content and robust library; the recent enhancement of MGM’s debt capital structure to $2.1 billion; and MGM’s joint venture with Annapurna Pictures, through which MGM will once again release its own films under the MGM banner theatrically in the U.S.

Brearton has been recognized for his work with many accolades over his career, such as The Hollywood Reporter’s “Power Players,” Sports Business Journal’s “Elite” list as well as their “Forty Under Forty” award, and has been recognized as one of Variety’s “Hollywood’s Top Dealmakers,” and on their “Game Changing Entertainment Attorneys” list.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of USA Swimming, the LA Sports Council and LA Promise Fund, a non-profit organization transforming under-served communities by preparing every child in one South Los Angeles neighborhood to graduate from high school. He is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Brearton began his career in 1992 as a certified public accountant (CPA) in the Information, Communications and Entertainment group of KPMG in Los Angeles, where his first client was MGM.

Brearton received his J.D. from the University of Virginia and his bachelor degree from the University of Georgia, where he was also a student athlete and competed as collegiate varsity swimmer.

Doug Rousso, a thought leader in enterprise architecture and frequent public speaker, has comprehensive digital business transformation experience. Rousso is known for creating tremendous enterprise value through technology delivery and development; -and delivering exceptional capability spanning digital delivery, OTT and direct to consumer capabilities. For 25 years, he has delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in EBITDA. Rousso focuses on business value and critical strategies that enable transformation and results.

Rousso holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and an undergraduate degree in finance and business economics. He currently resides in New York and is a SCUBA diving instructor and an avid snow- and water-skier.

Specialties:

•Advisory and Board Seats - Provides thought leadership and strategic advice to premier firms both public and private.

•Executive Management - Builds rapid credibility and relationships across the corporate governance functions and boards.

•Business Economics - Practice of contemporary finance, with an emphasis on financial problems, decisions, and policies of corporations;

•Technology Management - Hands-on management of all aspects of delivering advanced technology aligned to corporate strategy

•New Technologies Development -Development of patent portfolios used in revenue generation or in support of defensive postures against market predators.

•Operations Management - Formulation, modeling, analysis, and optimization of business supply chain;

As Chief Legal Officer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., (MGM), Lesley Freeman is a key member of the team responsible for spearheading MGM’s significant corporate and financial transactions, including the studio’s full acquisition of the premium pay television network EPIX; the closing of MGM corporate credit facilities totaling $2.6 billion; the expansion of MGM’s television division with the acquisitions of Evolution Media and Big Fish Entertainment, two of today's most innovative producers of unscripted television content; the relaunch of Orion Pictures, the well-known motion picture label established in the early 1980s, as a standalone U.S. theatrical marketing and distribution company; and MGM’s return to U.S. theatrical distribution through United Artists Releasing, a joint venture with Annapurna Pictures. Freeman also oversees all business and legal affairs divisions company-wide, including theatrical, scripted television, unscripted television, music, distribution, marketing, EPIX and LightWorkers and oversees all corporate legal matters and departments including litigation, intellectual property, privacy, technology, labor relations and library rights management.

Prior to joining MGM, Freeman spent nearly ten years at Home Box Office, Inc. as Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs where she was responsible for the oversight of all legal matters in the areas of film programming, home entertainment/digital program distribution and domestic joint venture/strategic investments and M&A. Freeman previously served as Senior Counsel in the entertainment, sports and media department at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles, where she represented major studios, independent production companies, television networks and financial institutions in the entertainment industry.

Freeman began her legal career as a commercial finance and real estate associate at Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd. in Chicago. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

Stephen Bruno is a Chief Marketing Officer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc and is based in Beverly Hills, California. He attended Boston University between 1997 and 2001.

Kenneth J. Kay joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., (MGM) as Chief Financial Officer in July 2015.

Kay is a seasoned and versatile executive with over 30 years of experience in global, strategic and operational management across multiple industries. Most recently, in 2013, he co-founded Las Vegas-based investment and advisory service firm Raven LLC. The company provides debt and equity capital as well as management consulting/advisory services to small and medium sized businesses. Prior to founding Raven, Kay served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the leading global developer of destination properties (Integrated Resorts). Kay previously served as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. Kay has also held executive and CFO posts at several other corporations including the Dole Food Company, Universal Studios - Consumer Products Group, Playmates Inc. and Systemed Inc.

Kay has been active in all aspects of the capital markets, consummating numerous mergers and acquisitions for the various companies he has worked for, including raising approximately $40 billion in debt and equity financing. He has also been instrumental in many process enhancement and redesign programs that have led to sustained growth in profitability.

Kay graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance and Marketing, became a certified public accountant and worked in public accounting for several years before taking on senior financial management roles.

Kay is a member of the Board of Directors of Summit Hotel Properties, Inc., the Board of Governors at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and the Board of Advisors of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting.