Paul Schwake

Paul Schwake is the chief operating officer at Skydance Productions and former chief operating officer at Level 1 Entertainment. When Level 1 was co-financing 's during the film's production, Schwake was listed as an executive producer on the film along with Level 1 founders Bill Todman, Jr. and Edward Milstein. None of them, however, were credited in the final film. As the current COO of Skydance Productions, Schwake served as executive producer on the sequel,. 

Schwake graduated from California State University, Northridge, in 1985. After working as an auditor and the accounting firm Price Waterhouse, he became the Vice President of Finance at Morgan Creek Productions, working with future Level 1 partner Bill Todman, Jr. Some of the films he helped finance at Morgan Creek include Major League, Young Guns, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, True Romance, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Future Level 1 partner Bill Todman, Jr., worked at Morgan Creek during part of Schwake's tenure.

Later, Schwake served as chief financial officer at the production company Spyglass Entertainment. During his time at Spyglass, Schwake took part in such films as The Sixth Sense, The Insider, Shanghai Noon, Seabiscuit and Bruce Almighty. During his last two years at Spyglass, Schwake began working with fellow Star Trek executive producer Jeffrey Chernov, who became production executive at the company in 2001. Schwake joined Level 1 shortly after its inception in 2003.

As an executive at Level 1, Schwake was an executive producer on the 2006 comedy Grandma's Boy and the 2007 thriller Rendition along with Todman and Milstein. The latter film featured Bob Gunton in the cast. As part of Skydance, he was an executive producer on hit 2010 Western film True Grit for which he won a Bronze Wrangler at the Western Heritage Awards in 2011. More recent projects as executive producer for Skydance include the crime thriller Jack Reacher (2012, with Nicole Forester), the science fiction sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013, with Dwayne Johnson), and the horror/science fiction film World War Z (2013).