GreenSlate Reshapes Its Leadership as Founder John Finn Steps Back and Longtime Executive Mike Leiba Takes the Helm
GreenSlate, the Hollywood payroll and production accounting company that has steadily built a reputation as a tech-forward alternative to legacy systems, is entering a new chapter in its corporate story. The firm announced a significant shift in leadership: founder John Finn, at the helm of the company since its launch more than two decades ago, is transitioning out of his CEO role to make way for a symbolic passing of the torch to longtime GreenSlate executive Mike Leiba, who has been promoted to chief executive officer.
Finn’s path to creating GreenSlate began long before he founded the company in 2004. He started his career on film sets, working as a production accountant on acclaimed projects like Lost in Translation, Pollock, and Before Night Falls. Those early industry experiences helped him recognize the inefficiencies in traditional production payroll and accounting workflows — a system that had changed little since the 1970s and often relied on paper-based processes that slowed productions down. GreenSlate emerged as his answer: a modernized platform that blends software with service to make production accounting faster, clearer, and more collaborative.
Now stepping into the role of executive chair of the company's board, Finn will stay deeply involved with the business he built and continue serving as a majority owner. His successor, though, is hardly new to the GreenSlate story. Leiba has been with the company for 18 years, working his way up its ranks to assume the presidency and the title of chief operating officer. In those years, he has worked hands-on with the company's clients to address what are often the most complex — and least glamorous — operational realities of film and television production: payroll, residuals, cost tracking, compliance and union obligations.
“Mike’s leadership has been essential to GreenSlate’s consistent growth and success over the last 18 years,” said Finn in announcing the transition. “He has worked closely with our customers to drive efficient solutions to their toughest challenges. As CEO he will continue to drive our vision forward.”
The leadership change comes as the entertainment payroll and accounting industry has grown increasingly competitive — and more technologically adventurous. Longstanding behemoths such as Cast & Crew and Entertainment Partners, both founded in 1976, remain dominant, but newer entrants like Wrapbook have pushed the space forward, banking on cloud-based automation and intuitive design. GreenSlate firmly places itself in that camp, branding itself as the more nimble, more modern, and more production-friendly alternative in an industry where inefficiency can cost time and millions of dollars.
The company's client list is a reflection of its footing in both indie and studio spaces, including Netflix, A24, HBO, Paramount, Skydance, Tyler Perry Studios, Hello Sunshine, The North Road Company, and Imagine Entertainment, among others. It currently employs 225 staff across three countries and lists Francisco Partners as its lead investor alongside VSS Capital Partners.
To Leiba, the promotion embodies continuity and evolution. "This is how we help productions run their businesses smoothly, save more, make every dollar count, and avoid costly mistakes," he said. "As we go into this next phase, I look forward to partnering even more closely with our clients to create greater opportunities for shared success." In a business where everything trickles down to the day a production wraps, GreenSlate’s story — and its new CEO — will be judged by one thing: how well the work gets done. And for now, both stability and momentum appear firmly in place.
