As David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance continues to pursue its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the company is adding a new leader for its public policy and regulatory team: Rene Augustine, a former attorney in President Trump’s White House and one-time deputy in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
Augustine will join Paramount Skydance on Feb. 17 as senior VP, global public policy. She reports to Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim, who joined the company last fall.
Augustine had served as deputy assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, in charge of international and policy, during Trump’s first term. In that capacity, she worked under Delrahim, who had been an assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division.
Most recently Augustine spent nearly five years in advisory roles at the Kennedy Center, 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 this month declared that the Kennedy Center would be shut down for two years, starting this summer, for a “complete rebuilding.” The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees in December voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” and Trump’s name was added 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 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.”
Augustine previously served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2019 to 2021, including in an acting capacity. In that role, she oversaw the Division’s International Antitrust and its Competition, Policy and Advocacy Sections where she developed international antitrust enforcement policy and represented the United States in engagements with foreign competition enforcers in international forums. She also led significant policy initiatives, advanced the Division’s congressional and intergovernmental priorities, and coordinated federal interagency matters.
Earlier, Augustine served as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, with front-office responsibility for the Media and Entertainment and Competition, Policy and Advocacy Sections. She also held senior roles at the White House, including as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Associate Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office. She previously served as Associate Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Augustine’s career also includes extensive 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 and worked as a staff attorney providing legal services to underserved communities.
Augustine holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law where she served as Articles Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and earned Order of the Coif honors, and a B.A. 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.
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