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, music, sports and entertainment executives.

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, Paul 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 include, 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; and 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; 88 Rising, a hybrid music management and video marketing company; ATTN, a digital media company, and NTWRK, a pop culture e-commerce company co-founded by Main Street Advisors. 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. He was the lead negotiator on LeBron James’ lifetime agreement with Nike. He is a founding Partner of Content Partners, a Los Angeles-based company that purchases back-end participations in entertainment assets from talent and studios. Paul is a founding member of Lagunita Biosciences, a healthcare investment company and incubator. Paul Wachter was executive producer of the Starz scripted series, Survivor's Remorse, and HBO’s What’s My Name, a documentary on Muhammad Ali, winner of the 2020 PGA Award for Outstanding Sports Program and the 2020 Sports Emmy.