December 12, 2017
Cast & Crew hires payment systems veteran as new GC
By Paula Lehman-Ewing
Burbank-based payroll management company Cast & Crew Entertainment Services LLC has hired Ross Agre to lead its legal team. Agre replaces John H. Kedeshian, who left the company in September.
“I’ve always loved companies going through inflection points,” Agre said Monday. “Cast & Crew has a long history and a great reputation, but it’s also at the dawn of this transformation of the industry from paper to digital.”
Agre, who started at Cast & Crew Nov. 13, previously held top legal positions at AvidXchange Inc. and Vantiv Inc., two tech-driven payment companies. He was also chief legal officer at Mercury Payment Systems LLC and deputy general counsel at West Corp.
He began his legal career at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, where he specialized in corporate governance, large infrastructure projects and mergers and acquisitions.
“His background in technology and finance, especially in payments processing, is particularly relevant given where we are strategically and operationally,” Cast & Crew CEO Eric Belcher said in a statement last week announcing the new general counsel hire. “He also has exceptional experience in building legal departments and in guiding post-acquisition integrations and we look forward to his contribution in both of these areas.”
Since its acquisition by Silver Lake Partners in 2015 for $700 million, Cast & Crew has been on a buying spree. In 2016, the company purchased Final Draft Inc. and CAPS Payroll Inc.
With those transitions in their final stages, Agre will work to refocus the legal team on rolling out and monitoring Cast & Crew’s digital products and services.
“The focus is less on integration and more on driving business forward with digital solutions,” Agre said. “It will require developing the documentation for our digital products and a host of other legal considerations that go into these new solutions.”
December 7, 2017
Movers & Shakers
By Variety Insight
We’re proud to congratulate the following movers & shakers:
Corporate:
Ross Agre
Now: General Counsel, Cast & Crew
Was: Chief Legal and Risk Officer and Secretary, AvidXChange, Inc.