Paul Schaeber Email & Phone Number

Canonsburg, Pa, Us

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Greater Pittsburgh Area

Canonsburg, Pa

Lead financial planning and analysis for all digital technology, talent planning and payroll within ESPN Digital Media. This includes forecast, budget, 5-year planning, month close and any investment areas. Partner with cross-functional teams to evaluate and implement new operational initiatives. I was the finance lead working with ESPN & Disney technology leadership to evaluate and execute a migration from an internally managed computing environment to a cloud based environment; Working with our technology teams, I built our financial model, ensured proper tracking/forecasting setup, and presented our plan/results to senior management. Collaborated with three Sr. Directors in finance and the Disney development team to evaluate, develop and implement a new COGNOS-based payroll forecasting/reporting system. This included everything from specking out requirements, evaluating capabilities and limitations, working thru calculations, anticipating obstacles, testing, report building, training end users and working with the development team to implement enhancements.Perpetually exploring and implementing improvements within our financial reporting and planning processes. Examples include more in-depth analysis of Disney Technical Shared Services, implementing and training coworkers on technical solutions to improve processes, establishing accountability of expenses with our operating teams, instituting approval processes on new spending and consolidating these areas under my leadership.

Canonsburg, Pa

Collaborate with cross-functional team to evaluate strategic initiatives, create business cases and prioritize investments. Examples include new business plan for Grantland site, SEC Digital Network, ESPN Local initiative, Optimizing our video player with Ooyala.Teamed up with management, attorneys, human resources and tax to develop strategies to limit risk from potential law-suits involving employment issues. We evaluated all positions within our organization, established guidelines on how they should be classified, modeled out the financial implications and implemented all the necessary changes. Worked closely with operating partners in creating business cases to help evaluate strategic initiatives and prioritize investment. Examples include league rights valuations, transitioning to a new video player, new site launches and standardizing content and processes within all the digital businesses.Manage financial planning and analysis. This includes forecast, budget, 5-year planning, month close and any investment areas. Mentored and develop financial analysts and train them in our financial processes.

New York City, Ny

Restructured and standardized all the digital operating budgets to be both operational and sport specific, bringing increased vision to segment performance and rights valuations. I worked with our research team and operating partners to develop allocation methodologies to break out all revenue and expenses into 30+ sport silo P&L’s. Worked closely with editorial executive team to develop a system of assigning value to our writers contributions. I created the model, metrics and key performance indicators to value our writers, significantly improving salary negotiations.Created a financial history database that dynamically adapted to the fluid way we categorized our digital financials for each of our digital businesses. This was useful in assessing how allocations evolved and to identify major business investments we’ve made thru the years. Manage financial planning and analysis. This includes forecast, budget, 5-year planning, month close and any investment areas. Managed, mentored and developed a temp staff and our financial analysts.

New York City, Ny

Crafted detailed financial models to analyze pro forma effects of new and existing business opportunities. Examples include; ESPN Golf School, ESPN Zone, video games business with EA Sports, ESPN branded, X-Games international licensing products, DVD business, Book Publishing and the ESPN Shop.Evaluated potential licensing partnership opportunities. I met with prospective partners, evaluated and modeled out their sales pitch and worked with marketing and our management team to determine if their product was aligned with our branding vision. Some successful examples are EA Sports, Upper Deck trading cards, gaming tables, tailgating products. Passes include; ESPN branded Hotel, Gym and novelty food products.Advised on deal structuring, negotiating, and industry research within the book publishing business. I Worked closely with our editor-in-chief and his team to help determine which books we would take to print, which publisher to use, book size, print runs and royalty structures for each book. Lead reporting, month close, forecasting, budgeting and LRP planning efforts for over 81 licensees across 6+ international brands.

New York City, Ny

Worked with executive management team and human resources to restructure the commission plans for all levels of the digital and print sales team. The new plan was designed to promote cross-selling opportunities and team-work between two separate sales teams. I created models forecasting how much the sales staff would earn in commissions and had weekly meeting with their management team to ensure goals we’re being met.Worked with the Disney technology team to develop a window based insertion order/billing system, which automated our billing, inventory management & revenue reporting.Collaborated with marketing to create and test out various Pricing Strategies for our premium products (Insider & Fantasy). Investigated and implemented loyalty programs and subscriber retention call centers. Prepared and communicated weekly updates on ad sales pacing and closed business. Lead forecast, budget, month close and LRP planning for digital revenue. Worked closely with accounting to create and review journal entries and hired/managed a two-person temp staff.

New York City, Ny

Worked with Ad Sales management team to forecast revenue and inventory by section within ESPN.com, NFL.com, NBA.com and ABC News. I created an excel template for the account executives to update with their current working list, standardized the probability of close percentages and built a forecasting model to combine and summarize this information to senior management. Increasing the accuracy of our sales forecast from ~80% to +98% accuracy.Prepared and communicated weekly updates on ad sales pacing and closed business. Lead forecast, budget, month close and LRP planning for digital revenue. Worked closely with accounting to create and review journal entries .

New York City, Ny

Analyzed a variety of trends in order to better forecast revenue by location and Department across all current and planned locations.Created and enhanced financial reports developed for senior management and corporate review. Nominated for Fast Track program, offered to the top managers in each division.