What is David Zaslav's Net Worth and Salary?
David Zaslav is a media executive who has a net worth of $400 million. David Zaslav serves as the CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company formed from the 2022 merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia. Previously, he was the CEO and president of Discovery, where he oversaw a shift from educational programming to reality television through networks like HGTV, TLC, Animal Planet, Food Network and the Oprah Winfrey Network. As CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, Zaslav oversees Warner Brothers film and TV studio, HBO, CNN, TNT and TBS, in addition to the previously mentioned reality networks.
More recently, Zaslav has received strong criticism for his business practices over the years, including his mass-removal of titles from the streaming service Max and his habit of canceling nearly finished projects in order to get tax write-offs.
Salary
David first started working for John Malone's media conglomerate, Discovery, in 2006. Between 2006 and the end of 2022, David earned $750 million in compensation. Today David Zaslav's base salary is $3.1 million, but with stock grants and bonuses his annual total comp can be significantly higher. For example:
Discovery went public in 2008. Therefore, in 2009 filings showed he earned $11.7 million in the previous year. Over the next year he earned $42.6 million. In 2014 David earned a salary of $152 million from Discovery Communications. That made him the highest-paid corporate executive in the world that year. In 2018 he earned $129.4 million. In 2021 David Zaslav's total compensation came to $246.6 million. The vast majority of that compensation was a $203 million stock option grant. In 2022 he earned $39 million. That was broken-out as:
- $3.1 million base salary
- $12 million stock awards
- $1.4 million stock options
- $21.8 million "non-equity incentive plan comp" (aka bonus)
- $925,489 "other" compensation
In 2023, a year when Discovery battled multiple Hollywood strikes where David's pay was a constant subject, he earned $50 million. His 2023 salary was broken up as:
- $3 million base salary
- $23 million stock awards
- $22 million cash bonus
- $770,000 worth of "other compensation" (personal security at various residences, private jet travel)
(Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Early Life and Education
David Zaslav was born on January 15, 1960 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City into a Jewish family. He is of Ukrainian and Polish heritage. When he was eight, he moved with his family to Ramapo, New York, where he went to Ramapo High School. Zaslav went on to attend Binghamton University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1982. He then went to the Boston University School of Law, earning his JD with honors in 1985. Zaslav began his career as an attorney with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Lieby and MacRae.
NBCUniversal
In 1989, Zaslav joined NBC. He became president of the Cable and Domestic TV and New Media Distribution arm, where he oversaw content distribution and negotiated for cable and satellite carriage of NBCUniversal networks. Zaslav was also responsible for overseeing various NBCUniversal channels, including Bravo, A&E, Telemundo, the History Channel, and National Geographic. Additionally, he was instrumental in the creation and launch of the news networks CNBC and MSNBC.
Discovery
In late 2006, Zaslav succeeded Judith McHale as CEO of Discovery. At the company, he oversaw the development and launch of various new networks, including OWN, Velocity, and Planet Green, and worked to shift programming more toward reality television and away from education-based content. Under Zaslav's leadership, Discovery went public in 2008 and became a Fortune 500 company in 2014. In 2018, the company acquired Scripps Networks Interactive.
Warner Bros. Discovery
In the spring of 2022, Zaslav oversaw the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery. He received an executive compensation package that included a $3 million annual salary with an annual $22 million bonus, plus a contract extension with stock options valued at $190 million. Zaslav soon came under fire for his business practices as head of Warner Bros. Discovery, particularly his decision to drastically reduce the content library on the company's streaming service HBO Max, later rebranded as Max, so he could get tax write-offs. Moreover, he canceled projects that were nearly finished, such as "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt." The total accounted loss came close to $25 billion off Warner Bros. Discovery's market cap.
Zaslav garnered more criticism when he appointed Chris Licht as CEO of CNN without interviewing any internal candidates. Licht went on to attempt to make CNN more palatable to conservatives in the US; he was ultimately fired in mid-2023. Zaslav continued to draw the ire of the public when he oversaw major cuts to the network Turner Classic Movies. In response, such filmmakers as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg met with Zaslav to be assured of TCM's protection.
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Other Appointments
Among his other appointments, Zaslav sits on numerous boards, including those of Sirius XM, Grupo Televisa, the Paley Center for Media, Syracuse University, and the USC Shoah Foundation. He also chairs the Auschwitz: The Past is Present Committee, which promotes Holocaust awareness.
Honors and Awards
In 2012, Zaslav was given the Steven J. Ross Humanitarian Award by the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York. Two years later, he received the Fred Dressler Leadership Award from Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. In 2017, Zaslav was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame, and in 2022 was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People."
Personal Life and Real Estate
David met his future wife Pam in high school. Today they have three children, Alison, Jamie, and Jordon. The family has multiple homes around the country.
In 2010 the Zaslavs paid $25 million for Conan O'Brien's seven-bedroom Central Park West duplex
In December 2012 they paid $24.65 million for a 7,000 square-foot home in East Hampton. The eight bedroom mansion sits on 1.7 oceanfront acres.
In January 2020 they paid $16 million for a mansion in Beverly Hills. The estate of producer Robert Evans was the seller. Evans bought the home in the 1960s for $290,000. He named it "Woodland." In the 1980s, following a drug trafficking conviction and a career downturn, Evans was forced him to sell the home, but with the help of friends like Jack Nicholson, a few years later Robert re-acquired the home and proceeded to live their until his death in late 2019.
In May 2021 The Zaslavs listed their 6,750 square foot Greenwich Village townhome for $18 million. They bought the unit in 2016 for $11.8 million.
