SABAN - Key Persons


Adam Chesnoff - COO, President

Job Titles:
  • Chief Operating Officer
  • President
  • Member of the Board of Saban Real Estate
Adam Chesnoff is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Saban Capital Group LLC. In this position, Mr. Chesnoff is responsible for overseeing the company's investment and business activities, including real estate, private equity, venture capital, and public market investments. He also provides oversight of business operations and the corporate team including legal, finance, tax and human resources. Mr. Chesnoff is currently a member of the Board of Saban Real Estate, member of the Board of Saban Films and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Celestial Tiger Entertainment, an owner and operator of pay television channels across South East Asia. Between 2007-2020, Mr. Chesnoff was a member Board of Directors of Univision, the largest Spanish-language media company in the United States. Between 2013-2019, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Partner Communications (Nasdaq/Tlv listed), a leading telecommunications company in Israel. In addition, Mr. Chesnoff co-formed and directed the investment group that acquired a controlling stake in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (Frankfurt listed), Germany's largest television group, and he served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of ProSiebenSat.1 between 2003 to 2007. From 2005 to 2010, Mr. Chesnoff served on the Board of Directors of Bezeq (Tlv listed), Israel's incumbent telecommunications company. Prior to becoming President and COO of Saban Capital Group, Mr. Chesnoff spent five years at Fox Family Worldwide (FFWW) where he oversaw business development across all global divisions, including television channels, programming, production, international distribution and merchandising. From 1994 to 1995, Mr. Chesnoff worked in the Business Affairs and Corporate Development groups at Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, where he focused on strategic planning, financial analysis, deal structuring and new business development in the Motion Picture and Television divisions. In 1991, Mr. Chesnoff worked in the Far East for one year where he oversaw the establishment of a garment-factory network for export to the United States. Mr. Chesnoff is a graduate of UCLA's Anderson School of Business (MBA, 1994) and Tel Aviv University's Recanati School of Business Administration (BA, Economics and Management, 1991). Prior to that, Mr. Chesnoff served as an officer in the IDF from 1984 - 1988.

Amitai Raziel - CEO, Chairman

Job Titles:
  • CEO
  • Chairman
  • Chief of Staff
  • Chairman 's Chief of Staff
Amitai Raziel is Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO. In this role, he serves as a strategic advisor to the CEO and helps manage the implementation and communication of key strategic projects and processes across the company that are priorities to the CEO. Amitai also oversees the operations of the Saban Family Foundation, through which the Saban family have granted roughly $500 million to non-profit organizations in the US and abroad. Prior to Saban, Amitai worked at a DC-based international business advisory firm providing multinational clients with strategic advice and tactical support in international business development, market entry, regulatory affairs and geopolitical risk analysis. Amitai began his career in New York, where he helped lead strategic planning at a global NGO and previously served as a project analyst at the international firm Mintz Levin. Amitai received his MBA and MS in Foreign Service degrees with honors from Georgetown University. He holds a BA in Middle East Studies from Columbia University, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Amy Mucha

Job Titles:
  • SVP of Saban Real Estate
  • SVP, Accounting, Real Estate
Amy Mucha serves as SVP of Saban Real Estate where she is responsible for the accounting and financial reporting for all verticals of the real estate portfolio. Prior to joining Saban, Ms. Mucha served as Vice President of Accounting at AIG, where she managed the corporate accounting and financial reporting team of the affordable housing business unit. Prior to AIG, Ms. Mucha was an accounting manager at Fidelity National Financial. Ms. Mucha holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Archie Patel

Job Titles:
  • Senior Vice President of FP & a
Archie Patel is Senior Vice President of FP&A at Saban Capital Group where he leads forecasting and budgeting, financial modeling, data analytics, strategy and business development as well as financial reporting. He works closely with the Executive Team to provide decision support through development of company-wide metrics and efforts to drive strategic initiatives to optimize performance. Prior to joining Saban, Archie served as VP and Head of Corporate FP&A at City National Bank providing financial, planning and analytical oversight. His diverse background includes work with companies both large and small which gave him exposure to different phases of their life cycles. Archie holds an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics with an emphasis in Accounting from University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Ben Elsen

Job Titles:
  • Director of Asset Management at Saban Real Estate
  • Director, Asset Management
Ben Elsen serves as the Director of Asset Management at Saban Real Estate, LLC. Mr. Elsen is primarily responsible for implementing and overseeing customized strategies to maximize the value of Saban Real Estate's student housing properties. Prior to joining us, Mr. Elsen held the position of Asset Manager at Sabal Financial Group, a financial services firm in Newport Beach focused on commercial real estate investment. Ben's previous experience also includes the time he spent as Commercial Real Estate Credit Analyst at Fifth Third Bank. Mr. Elsen holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Real Estate from the University of Cincinnati.

Daniel Goldstone - Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director
  • Managing Director of Saban Real Estate
Daniel Goldstone serves as Managing Director of Saban Real Estate, LLC. In this role, Mr. Goldstone is responsible for operations of Saban's GSA leased real estate holdings, including leasing, financing, strategic asset analysis, financial forecasting and cost control. He is also responsible for maximizing performance of Saban's self-storage portfolio. Prior to joining Saban Real Estate, Mr. Goldstone served as Manager of Operations for CityView, one of the nation's premier institutional investment firms focused on in-city housing development. Prior to CityView, Mr. Goldstone worked in the real estate practice of Ernst & Young in Los Angeles. Mr. Goldstone holds a BA in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Deb Lloyd - CHRO

Job Titles:
  • Chief People Officer
Deb Lloyd serves as Chief People Officer. In this role, Ms. Lloyd is responsible for executing and integrating the HR strategy with the needs of the business and strategic direction of the company while partnering with senior leadership to meet operational business goals. Ms. Lloyd also oversees SCG's Operations team and is responsible for ensuring functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology. Prior to joining Saban Capital, Ms. Lloyd's experienced includes HR and Operations appointments in the financial and real estate industries, facilitating business change and performance through the design and implementation of an effective people strategy. She has advised on multi-million dollar global projects and provided insightful direction with regards to leadership development, performance and talent management, organizational structure and employee engagement. Her roles have included Vice President at Goldrich & Kest, Director at Farallon Capital Management and Global Enterprise Manager at Citadel Investment Group, LLC. Ms. Lloyd holds her BS in Applied Economics from University of San Francisco.

Haim Saban - CEO, Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Chief Executive Officer
Haim Saban, an entrepreneur and global investor with more than four decades of experience building successful media and telecommunication businesses, is Chairman and CEO of Saban Capital LLC, a private Los Angeles-based global investment firm that spans operations in real estate, venture capital, public equity and private equity. A native of Alexandria, Egypt, Saban immigrated at the age of 12 to Israel, attending agricultural school and serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. In Israel, Saban built the country's premier tour promotion business. After the Yom Kippur War, Saban relocated in 1975 to France, where he started a successful independent record company that sold more than 18-million records in eight years. In 1983, Saban moved to Los Angeles where he built a chain of recording studios that rapidly became the top supplier of music for television programs. By 1988, Saban ventured into television production, forming Saban Entertainment, an international production, distribution and merchandising company that produced X-Men™ and additional shows and products based on Marvel Comics characters. Saban created and produced the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" ™ that he introduced to the U.S.in 1993 , which remains a pop culture phenomenon to this day 30 years later. In partnership with the News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch, Saban co-founded Fox Family Worldwide in 1995, creating a global television, broadcasting, production, distribution and merchandising company in the kids and family spaces. In 2001, Walt Disney Co. acquired Fox Family for an enterprise value of $5.2 billion. In 2001, Saban founded Saban Capital Group (SCG) and led an investor group in 2003 to buy a controlling stake in ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Germany's largest television broadcaster. He served as Chairman of its Supervisory Board and in 2007 led the sale of the controlling stake to private equity firms, KKR and Permira at a $7.5 billion valuation.

Ken Van Damme - CFO, EVP

Job Titles:
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Executive Vice President
Ken Van Damme serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In this role, Mr. Van Damme has primary accountability for defining the financial strategies of Saban Capital Group and serves as a strategic partner for Saban Real Estate. Mr. Van Damme's experience prior to Saban Capital includes more than 32 years of tax advisory experience, most recently as Senior Partner in the San Diego office of Ernst & Young. While there, Mr. Van Damme led a team of tax professionals specializing in serving high net worth families that held and operated significant investments in real estate and privately owned operating companies. Mr. Van Damme has extensive tax consulting experience with structuring real estate and company transactions as well as income tax and estate tax planning for individuals. Prior to that, Mr. Van Damme co-founded and built a very successful CPA firm in San Diego that was acquired by Ernst & Young. Mr. Van Damme holds a Master's in Taxation from San Diego State University and a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Western Michigan University. Mr. Van Damme is a Certified Public Accountant.

Matt Scheid

Job Titles:
  • Vice President, FP & a and Accounting
Matt Scheid serves as Vice President, FP&A and Accounting for Saban Real Estate. In this role, Mr. Scheid leads financial planning & analysis, investor relations, and financial reporting for the Saban Real Estate portfolio. He also works closely with the executive team to develop and model new financial strategies, making high level recommendations to maximize business results and improve operational efficiencies. Mr. Scheid's experience in finance within the Real Estate industry includes positions that he has held at various institutional investors such as KB Home, JLL, and most recently Ivanhoe Cambridge. Mr. Scheid holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Michael Cogan Sr.

Job Titles:
  • Director of Acquisitions at Saban Real Estate
  • Director, Acquisitions
Michael Cogan is the Sr. Director of Acquisitions at Saban Real Estate where he is responsible for designing and implementing customized investment and management strategies to maximize the value of its national student housing portfolio. Prior to Saban, Mr. Cogan held positions in real estate private equity at Benedict Canyon Equities and Rockwood Capital, where he focused on acquisitions and asset management for multi-family, office, and retail properties. Michael's previous experience also includes acquisitions for Healthpeak Properties, a public REIT investing in healthcare properties in the US and Europe. Michael is a current board member of the UCLA Real Estate Alumni Group. Mr. Cogan holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics/Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA in Real Estate and Healthcare Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ness Saban

Job Titles:
  • Deputy CEO
Ness Saban serves as Deputy CEO of Saban Capital Group where he works closely alongside the CEO & Chairman on all aspects of the company's investment and business activities across all entities. Ness' diverse background includes his experience as VP of Business Development at Saban Films and various executive positions he held at Saban Brands Digital Content, where he drove the successful creation, release and marketing of mobile games and short-form content based on Saban-owned properties. Ness' managerial and production experience comes from the time he spent in the studio and independent film space, including at Warner Independent Pictures and while working on-set for major studio film productions. He also co-founded the successful pop-up restaurant Amalur, where he supervised all front-of-house operations.

Niveen Tadros - Chief Legal Officer, EVP

Job Titles:
  • Executive Vice President
  • General Counsel
Niveen Tadros serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. As a senior member of management and the private equity team, Ms. Tadros negotiates and structures transactions, including acquisition and sale agreements and financings. Ms. Tadros has extensive transactional and investment experience, including mergers/acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, corporate finance (debt/equity), restructurings, public offerings and strategic ventures spanning a variety of industries, including media, real estate, manufacturing, telecommunications and technology. Prior to joining Saban, Ms. Tadros was an Associate at Latham & Watkins representing public and private clients in transactions worldwide. Ms. Tadros previously clerked for the Honorable Judge Linda McLaughlin, Federal Court, Central District of California and the United States Attorney's Office in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Tadros holds a BS, Engineering from University of California Irvine and a JD from Northwestern University School of Law.

Rachel Worrel

Job Titles:
  • Senior Vice President, Investments
Rachel Worrel serves as Senior Vice President, Investments at Saban Capital Group where she is responsible for daily management of the investment portfolio, including sourcing and screening of new investments and overseeing management reporting. Ms. Worrel previously served as Director of Finance at TOMS Shoes where she was actively involved in operations as strategic finance lead. Her prior experience includes her role as Private Equity Associate at Freeman Spogli & Co. and Investment Banking Analyst at Credit Suisse in Los Angeles. Ms. Worrel holds a Master of Business Taxation as well as Bachelor's Degrees in Accounting and Business Administration from the Marshall and Leventhal Schools at USC.

Scott Anderson - COO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Chief Operating Officer for Saban Real Estate
Scott Anderson serves as Chief Operating Officer for Saban Real Estate, LLC. In this role, Mr. Anderson is responsible for the overall strategy and management of Saban's current real estate holdings across all verticals. Prior to joining Saban, Scott was EVP, Portfolio Management at American Realty Advisors and brings to Saban his experience with multi-family and mixed-use properties. Scott also previously held positions at TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate, Fannie Mae, and KPMG, and has participated in numerous industry-specific speaking engagements. He is a former Board of Director Member of National Multifamily Housing Council and is a current member of the Urban Land Institute Multifamily Product Council. Scott holds a Masters in Real Estate from Columbia University and a BS from The University of Michigan.

Yaniv Schwartz

Job Titles:
  • Associate
  • Associate at Saban Real Estate
Yaniv Schwartz is Associate at Saban Real Estate where he is responsible for working alongside both the asset management and acquisition teams to develop strategies to maximize the value of its portfolio. Mr. Schwartz previously held various positions in the real estate and finance industries at Blue Marble Development and Peak Finance Corporation. Mr. Schwartz holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Prior to that, Mr. Schwartz served as Sergeant First Class in the IDF from 2010 - 2013.