Paul Wachter
Paul D. Wachter is the founder and chief executive officer of Main Street Advisors. Founded in 1997, Main Street Advisors provides a wide range of financial, strategic, business-building and asset management advisory services to a select group of artists, athletes and music, sports and entertainment executives. Paul is also Chairman of the Board of United Talent Agency (UTA).
Prior to forming Main Street Advisors, from 1993 to 1997 Paul was managing director and head of Schroder & Co. Incorporated’s Lodging and Gaming Group, its Sports and Leisure Group and Schroder’s West Coast investment banking effort. Prior to that, Paul was Managing Director at Kidder Peabody, where he founded and was responsible for Kidder’s Hotel, Resorts and Leisure Group. He also managed Kidder’s Real Estate Group and Kidder’s Los Angeles investment banking group. Prior to that he worked at Bear Stearns. From 1982 to 1985, he worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a tax attorney. From 1981 to 1982, Paul clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Paul is a 1981 graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He graduated magna cum laude and Beta Gamma Sigma from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and is a member of the New York State Bar.
His advisory and board of director roles have been, but are not limited to, being trustee of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blind trust and First Lady Maria Shriver’s blind trust; serving as a key advisor and strategist to Schwarzenegger’s 2003 to 2006 campaigns and transition terms; serving on the Board of Directors of Time Warner Inc. from 2010 until its sale to AT&T in 2018; serving on the Board of Directors of Virgin America Inc. from August 2015 until its sale to Alaska Airlines in 2016; serving on the Board of Managers of Beats Electronics LLC & Beats Music LLC from inception through 2014 when Beats and Beats Music were sold to Apple Inc.—Paul was the lead negotiator on Beats’ sale to Apple; serving on the Board of Directors of American Skiing company from 1996 to 2008; serving on the University of California, Board of Regents, 2004-2016 – Appointed by the Governor in 2004; University of California Chairman of Investment Committee of the Board of Regents, 2006-2016; Chairman of the UC Regents Governance Committee, 2009-2011; serving as chairman of the Austrian Holocaust Reparations Committee formed by the United States District Court to administer the Austrian Bank Holocaust Settlement Fund. Paul was also special master for the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York for the Time Warner/AOL securities litigation and Moody’s bond holders’ lawsuits.
Paul served on the Board of Directors for Ladder, a nutritional supplement company co-founded by Main Street Advisors with Arnold Schwarzenegger and LeBron James, from 2018 to 2020; served on the Board of Directors of ATTN, a digital media company, from 2014-2022, and Haworth Marketing and Media Company until 2022. Paul currently serves on the Board of NTWRK, a pop culture e-commerce company co-founded by Main Street Advisors. He serves on the Board of United Masters/Translation, a premium music distribution service connecting independent artists with the world’s biggest brands. He serves on the Board of The Iovine Young Academy at USC and on the Board of LeBron James’ and Maverick Carter’s entertainment companies SpringHill/Uninterrupted. Paul serves on the Board of Trustees at Berklee College of Music as well as the Board and Conflicts Committee of Apollo Aligned Alternatives. He serves as Chairman of After-School All-Stars, a national non-profit that partners with schools to expand the learning day for at risk children. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of United Talent Agency, a global talent agency that represent artists and professionals throughout the entertainment industry. He was the lead negotiator and structurer of LeBron James’ lifetime agreement with Nike. He is the founding Partner of Content Partners, a Los Angeles based company that purchases passive back-end participation in entertainment assets from talent and other participation owners. He is also a founding member of Lagunita Biosciences, a healthcare investment company and incubator. He is the Executive Producer on Starz’s comedy Survivor’s Remorse, which has been nominated for and won NAACP and GLAAD awards, Executive Producer of What’s My Name, an HBO documentary about Mohammed Ali, winner of the PGA award for best sports documentary and the 2020 Sports Emmy, Executive Producer of Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, a children’s superhero television series; and Executive Producer of Arnold, a Netflix documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger. In March 2021, Wachter led negotiations for himself, LeBron James and Maverick Carter to become partners in the Fenway Sports Group alongside RedBird Capital Partners, in exchange for their minority stake in the Liverpool Football Club.