Rene Augustine worked with Makan Delrahim, Paramount's top lawyer, at the Justice Department and most recently served in advisory roles to the Kennedy Center
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| Courtesy of Paramount Skydance |
As David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance continues to pursue its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the company has hired a new leader for its public policy and regulatory teams: Rene Augustine, a former attorney in President Trump’s White House and one-time deputy in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
Augustine joined Paramount Skydance on Tuesday, February 17 as Senior Vice President (SVP), global public policy. She reports to Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim, who joined the company last fall.
She joins the company after the departure of DeDe Lea, the longtime head of global public policy and government relations.
Augustine from 2019-21 had served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, in charge of international and policy, during Trump’s first term. In that capacity, she worked under Delrahim, who had been the DOJ’s assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division. During that time, she oversaw the international antitrust and competition, policy and advocacy sections.
She also served as senior associate counsel in the White House counsel’s office from 2017 to 2018.
Most recently, Augustine spent nearly five years in advisory roles at the John F. Kennedy Center National Committee for the Performing Arts, first as a presidential appointee to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts and subsequently as co-chair of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.
Trump earlier this month declared that the Kennedy Center would be shut down for two years, starting this summer, for a “complete rebuilding.” In December, the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” and Trump’s name was affixed to the building’s exterior, a move that led numerous artists to cancel their engagements.
In her role as Paramount Skydance’s head of public policy, Augustine will be responsible for developing strategic policies “that advance our business objectives and building key diplomatic relationships that are important for advancing those objectives globally,” per a memo Delrahim sent to staff Friday, February 13 announcing her appointment. “Augustine will be based in Paramount Skydance’s Washington, D.C., office and will “regularly interact with teams in Los Angeles, New York and around the world.”
Delrahim, in his memo, wrote, “I’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with Rene at the Department of Justice, at the Senate and at the White House and know she is uniquely qualified and experienced to represent Paramount across a variety of policy, regulatory and diplomatic matters.”
“Rene is a highly respected attorney who has excelled in all three branches of government and the private sector. She has worked in a bipartisan manner with the highest security clearances in the government.”
Her appointment comes after Paramount hired lobbyist Ted Lehman, who has more than 20 years of experience on Capitol Hill and the private sector, as senior VP, head of U.S. public policy and government affairs.
Augustine, as deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, oversaw the division’s international antitrust and its competition, policy and advocacy sections, where she developed international antitrust enforcement policy and represented the U.S. in engagements with foreign competition enforcers in international forums.
She also held senior roles at the Trump White House, including as special assistant to the president and senior associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office. She also had senior roles during the George W. Bush administration, including as an associate counsel to President George W. Bush between 2005-09.
Augustine’s career includes legislative experience as senior counsel to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Earlier in her career, she practiced law at Covington & Burling and served as a federal judicial law clerk. She also taught as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University Law School and worked as a staff attorney providing legal services to underserved communities.
Augustine holds a law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University. She also completed executive education programs at MIT Sloan School of Management focused on blockchain technologies and machine learning in business. She is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Maryland and California (inactive) and to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last month, Paramount announced Ted Lehman as senior vice president and head of U.S. public policy and government affairs.
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