As David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance Company continues its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the company has hired a new leader for its public policy and regulatory team. Rene Augustine is a former White House lawyer for President Trump and a former deputy in the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
Mr. Augustine will join Paramount Skydance on February 17th as Senior Vice President of Global Public Policy. She will report to Makan Delrahim, Paramount’s chief legal officer, who joined the company last fall.
Augustine served as assistant attorney general for international policy in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division from 2019 to 2021, during President Trump’s first term. In that capacity, she worked under Delahim, who was the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division.
Most recently, Augustine served in an advisory role at the Kennedy Center for nearly five years, first as a presidential appointee to the President’s Advisory Council on the Arts and then as co-chair of the National Council on the Performing Arts.
President Trump announced earlier this month that the Kennedy Center would be closed for two years starting this summer for a “complete rebuild.” In December, the Kennedy Center’s Board of Directors voted to change the facility’s name to the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center, with Trump’s name plastered on the building’s exterior, a move that led many artists to cancel their contracts.
In his role as Paramount Skydance’s head of public policy, Augustine will be responsible for “developing strategic policies that advance our business goals and developing key diplomatic relationships critical to advancing those goals globally,” according to a memo Delahim sent to staff Friday announcing his appointment. “Augustin will be based in Paramount Skydance’s Washington, D.C., office and will interact regularly with teams in Los Angeles, New York, and around the world.”
“I have had the pleasure of working with Rene at the Department of Justice, the Senate, and the White House, and I know she is uniquely qualified and experienced to represent Paramount on a variety of policy, regulatory, and foreign affairs issues,” Delahim wrote in the memo.
Her appointment comes after Paramount hired Ted Lehman, a lobbyist with more than 20 years of experience on Capitol Hill and in the private sector, as senior vice president, head of U.S. public policy and government affairs.
As Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, Mr. Augustine oversaw the department’s international antitrust and competition, policy, and advocacy divisions, developed international antitrust enforcement policy, and represented the United States in engagements with foreign competition enforcement officials in international forums.
She also held senior positions in the Trump administration’s White House, including special assistant to the president and senior adviser in the White House Office of Counsel. From 2005 to 2009, Augustine served as Deputy Counsel to President George W. Bush.
Augustine’s career includes legislative experience as senior advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Earlier in his career, he practiced law at Covington & Burling and served as a federal judicial 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 earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University. She also completed an executive education program at the MIT Sloan School of Management focused on blockchain technology and machine learning in business. She is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and California (inactive) and to the United States Supreme Court.
