The title of Chief Corporate Affairs Officer appears at a small number of large media companies. It is not a role created for organizational tidiness. It exists because, at a certain scale and level of public visibility, the functions it encompasses — communications, government relations, corporate marketing, social responsibility — cannot operate effectively as separate departments. They require integration. David C. Leavy held that role at Warner Bros. Discovery, overseeing one of the most expansive corporate affairs portfolios in the media industry.

What the Role Actually Covers

At Warner Bros. Discovery, Leavy’s responsibilities as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer spanned corporate relations, global government relations and public policy, corporate marketing and events, global communications, corporate research, and social responsibility. Each of those functions, taken individually, is significant. Together, they form the external and institutional identity of the company.

Corporate relations governs how the company is understood and positioned among investors, analysts, and institutional stakeholders. Government relations manages the company’s engagement with regulators and legislators across the jurisdictions where it operates — which, for WBD, meant coordinating policy engagement across the United States, Europe, and markets throughout Asia, Latin America, and beyond. Global communications oversees how the company speaks publicly, from major announcements to ongoing press relationships. Corporate research provides the data and analysis that informs those functions.

Social responsibility, often treated as a peripheral function at many companies, sits within that same portfolio — a structural choice that signals how WBD positioned its public commitments relative to its corporate identity.

Why the Role Requires Integration

At a company the size and complexity of Warner Bros. Discovery — formed through the merger of two large media enterprises, each with its own regulatory history, communications culture, and stakeholder relationships — a fragmented approach to these functions creates real operational risk. Government relations and communications, for example, must operate from the same factual and strategic foundation. When they do not, the company can deliver inconsistent messages to regulators and press simultaneously, with compounding consequences.

The Chief Corporate Affairs Officer role exists to prevent that fragmentation. It places one executive in command of the full external-facing institutional apparatus, with the authority to ensure those functions operate as a coherent unit rather than independent silos. That kind of integration is particularly critical during periods of structural transition — and Warner Bros. Discovery was, from the moment of its formation, a company navigating one of the most complex transitions in recent media history.

The Policy Dimension

Global government relations at a company like WBD is not a ceremonial function. The media industry operates under regulatory frameworks that affect what content can be distributed, how platforms are classified, what data can be collected, and how mergers are reviewed. For a company with properties ranging from HBO to CNN to Warner Bros. Studios, the policy environment is not background noise — it is a direct operational variable.

David Leavy’s background made him particularly suited to that dimension of the role. His time as Chief Spokesman and Senior Director of Public Affairs for the National Security Council gave him direct experience in how government institutions operate, what they require from the companies they regulate, and how to engage policy processes credibly. That background does not guarantee favorable outcomes in regulatory proceedings. But it provides a foundation for engaging those processes with the institutional literacy they require.

From Corporate Affairs to CNN Operations

David C. Leavy’s transition from Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at WBD to Chief Operating Officer of CNN Worldwide reflects a career that has moved consistently between communications leadership and operational command. The COO role at CNN requires fluency across both — managing the business infrastructure of a global news network while maintaining the external relationships and institutional credibility that the CNN brand depends on.

The corporate affairs portfolio at WBD prepared him for that directly. Managing global communications for a company of WBD’s size, across multiple time zones, regulatory environments, and media cycles, is operationally demanding in ways that extend well beyond message development. It requires the capacity to manage teams, coordinate across functions, and make decisions under pressure — the same capacities the COO role demands, applied to a different and equally complex institutional context.

Board Engagement Beyond the Office

Outside his executive roles, David Leavy serves on the Board of Trustees at Colby College and as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Salisbury School. Both positions involve institutional governance responsibilities that parallel the corporate affairs work he has performed in the media industry — overseeing communications, strategic positioning, and stakeholder relationships for institutions with distinct missions and constituencies.

For an executive whose career has been defined by the intersection of institutional credibility and operational capacity, those board commitments represent a consistent extension of professional priorities rather than a departure from them.

About David Leavy

David C. Leavy is the Chief Operating Officer of CNN Worldwide, overseeing the network’s commercial, revenue, operational, technology, and promotional functions on a global scale. He previously served as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Warner Bros. Discovery, where he oversaw corporate relations, global government relations and public policy, corporate marketing and events, global communications, corporate research, and social responsibility. Before that, he served as Chief Corporate Operating Officer of Discovery, Inc., playing key roles in the company’s NASDAQ listing, the Scripps Networks Interactive acquisition, the Eurosport Olympic rights agreement across Europe, and the launch of discovery+. Earlier in his career, David C. Leavy served as Chief Spokesman and Senior Director of Public Affairs for the National Security Council in the Clinton White House. He is a graduate of Colby College, where he serves on the Board of Trustees, and serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Salisbury School.