Speaker Profile

As President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of Skydance Media, Jesse helps set and execute the overall strategy and growth plan for the company, while managing the business across all units, including film, television, animation and interactive. 

Most recently, Jesse architected Skydance’s newest venture, Skydance Sports, with the goal of building the first independent, sports content studio at scale. The NFL validated and accelerated the goal when it chose to partner with and rapidly expand Skydance Sports at the end of 2022. Jesse is the Chairman of Skydance Sports, and producer on all of its projects to date, including the Golden Globe-nominated feature film AIR with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon; Sports Emmy-nominated documentaries Good Rivals, NFL Draft: The Pick is In (#1 on Roku), and Kelce (#1 on Prime Video); and the recently released franchise series Hard Knocks: Off Season with the New York Giants (#2 on Max).

Also in 2022, Jesse helped spearhead Skydance’s $400 million investment led by KKR, marking the company’s valuation over $4 billion. In 2020, he played a key role in the formation of Skydance Animation Madrid following the acquisition of Ilion Animation Studios, creating one studio across two continents with the expanded creative capability, scale and leverage to deliver on the studio’s goal of becoming an industry-leading producer of high-end animated films. That same year, Jesse was instrumental in raising $275 million of equity capital and forming strategic partnerships with Redbird Capital and CJ ENM in sports and television, respectively. In 2018, Jesse raised $100 million of equity capital and formed a broad strategic partnership with Tencent Holdings to bolster Skydance’s footprint in China for its film and interactive divisions. In 2017, he facilitated a multi-year renewal of Skydance’s first-look production and global distribution deal with Paramount. And in 2016, Jesse took a leadership role in Skydance’s first acquisition—of game developer The Workshop Entertainment—to form Skydance Interactive. 

Before joining Skydance, Jesse served as the managing shareholder of his own boutique entertainment and venture capital law firm and launched the graphic novel and augmented reality company Anomaly Productions. He began his career at Heller Ehrman LLP.

Jesse is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Paley Media Council, and LA Sports and Entertainment Commission. In 2023, he was named on Sports Business Journal’s inaugural “4SE in Sports Storytelling” list that honors the most prominent and compelling people in sports and entertainment, and was listed in Variety’s prestigious Dealmakers Impact Report for six years in a row, 2015-2020. Jesse is a minority owner of Angel City Football Club and of Team Liquid (multi-champion esports team). He serves as a board member of UCLA’s Institute of Environment, Conservation International’s Global Council, and Angels at Risk.

Jesse earned his J.D. with honors from the University of California, Hastings and his B.A. with honors from the University of California, San Diego.