Paradigm President Greg Bestick to Retire From Talent Agency

Paradigm President Greg Bestick is retiring from the expertise company efficient instantly, the corporate stated on Friday.

“Greg played a vital role in the agency’s growth and successes. I am forever grateful to him. I could not have asked for a more capable executive and counsel these past eleven years,” Paradigm CEO Sam Gores stated in a press release. “Greg and I have become close friends, and I wish him the happiest, most well-deserved retirement as we look to write Paradigm’s next chapter.”

Bestick joined Paradigm in 2009 as a advisor. He stated in a memo to workers that he’s retiring from full-time work and looking out ahead to shifting on to the following section of his life. The expertise company has but to call a alternative.

“It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to work with Sam. In a cutthroat business full of people willing to take shortcuts, Sam stood out as someone who is sensitive, ethical and supportive,” Bestick stated in his observe. “What you have in front of you is a tremendous trauma, and an enormous opportunity. Paradigm now has to regroup. But the foundation is there, the talent is there, the opportunity to rebuild the business in a new and stronger way is there. All it takes is teamwork and a willingness to see and strive for a better, more hopeful future.”

Bestick’s departure comes throughout a tough interval for Paradigm because the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to place a pressure on the enterprise.

Paradigm let 250 workers members go on March 20 and enacted pay cuts for remaining staff. The firm’s film, TV and music departments had been notably arduous hit. And in a letter to Paradigm workers earlier this month, Gores stated the company had secured “interim financing” to get it by the present disaster, additionally saying he would forgo his full wage for the remainder of 2020 as a further cost-saving measure.

The company has additionally not too long ago been thrust right into a $2 million lawsuit with former agent Debbee Klein, who accused the expertise company and CEO Sam Gores of, amongst different issues, breach of oral contract and whistleblower retaliation. She additionally accused Gores of utilizing “Paradigm’s expense account as a slush fund to pay for his sexual dalliances with prostitutes.”

Paradigm has countersued and denies the entire allegations in Klein’s swimsuit, calling it “self-aggrandizing and delusional” and an “Uzi-like complaint only notable for its mendacity.”

Read Bestick’s memo to workers beneath:

In February of 2009, I got here to work at Paradigm on a three-month consulting contract. Three months and eleven very fulfilling years later, I’m shifting on to the following section of my life and retiring from full time work. This was the longest time I’d ever spent at one job in my life. By far. What stored me tied to this specific place for therefore lengthy?

Mainly it was the folks. So many who are usually not solely succesful and proficient staff, however genuinely good human beings. Fargo and Metzger and Tantleff and the entire New York crew. Monterey, the muse of our music enterprise, Dan and Fred and Chip and Jonathan and that complete subsequent technology of Pinkus, Hasson, Atamian, Greisch, McSwiggin, Nalpant, Schultz and on and on. The different music basis, in New York, Marty, Larry, then Galle and Marquis and all they constructed up over time. The expertise and lit folks in LA, Rand and Andrew and Alisa and Andy and Bill and Mark. Ben Weiss and Scott Melrose bridging movie/television and music. All the companies we partnered with after which introduced in below the tent: AM Only with Paul, Lee, Meyer, Cody; Windish with Tom and Sam Hunt; these tremendous spectacular Brits at Coda, Tom, Alex and James. Steve and Ian from X-ray, Garry and Ron from the opposite Monterey. All the proficient, hard-working individuals who hold the wheels turning, Craig and Stephanie and the authorized workers, Ben Scott, Sara Pullman and the ops group, Jess Dennis and Dave Hallybone and the finance/accounting groups throughout the enterprise, Joe and Steph and Lori. And so many others who taught me,…