Paramount Communications Exec Justin Dini to Depart

Justin Dini, who has spearheaded corporate communications for Paramount Skydance while it navigated a change in control from the Redstone family to its current management, is leaving the company.

Dini joined the company, known then as Viacom, in 2017, and handled communications outreach as it merged again with sibling CBS Corp., and as it jumped into the streaming wars with the acquisition of Pluto.

“I feel enormously lucky to have been part of this team. I’ve had the chance to work on stories that mattered, to navigate a fast-changing landscape alongside colleagues I deeply respect, and to be part of a team that cares not only about the work, but about one another. That’s rare. And it’s something I’ll always carry with me,” he said in a memo sent Tuesday to staffers.

Melissa Zukerman, former co-head of PR firm Principal Communications and an adviser to Skydance CEO David Ellison, was recently named the company’s chief communications officer.

Before coming to Paramount, Dini was a partner and co-head of the media and technology practice at Brunswick Group, a corporate communications advisory firm. Prior to that, Dini was special assistant for communications for William C. Thompson, Jr., the New York City comptroller. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995 with a degree in journalism and political science.

Paramount has faced great tumult in recent years, and Dini’s note reflected that. “On my very first day at what was then Viacom in 2017, I walked into a war room — and, in many respects, I never left.”