Leadership and Levity: Sony Pictures Chief CEO Ravi Ahuja, NBCUniversal’s Mark Marshall on 2025 Plans and Beyond

variety.com:

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Newly minted Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Ravi Ahuja addresses his first few days on the job as studio chief — when Mother Nature threw Los Angeles a curveball with devastating wildfire storms — on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business.” Ahuja gave his first interview since taking the reins of SPE this month at Variety’s Entertainment Summit, held as part of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

At the same Jan. 8 conference, NBCUniversal ad sales chief Mark Marshall spoke with NBC Sports host Maria Taylor about the company’s sports and entertainment schedule over the next two years — a frame Marshall described as “the greatest 730 days that any media company has ever had before.” As Los Angeles woke up to the reality of the fire disaster that decimated the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles and Altadena, a community north of Pasadena, Ahuja reflected on the process of decision-making when it involves not just business strategy but also public safety. Listen to the podcast: “Obviously, the situation… is very fluid,” Ahuja said. “You want everyone to be OK.

Some of our employees have lost homes, many are displaced, but then there are other parts of the city that are OK. The decision is: Do we close our lot?

Our lot has its own power and actually is in some ways a refuge for some people. So we strongly encourage people to work from home, but are keeping the lot open.” Later in the day, Marshall and Taylor brought some much-needed levity to the event with a rollicking conversation about sports, strategy and hair, or Marshall’s lack thereof.