Paul Lichtman has played a key role in opening Eastern Europe to American and international film and television productions.  His entry to the film and television business came through his international tax career.

 After graduating from the Wharton School of Business and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Lichtman went on to Columbia Law School.  During his studies at Columbia, he got his first taste of finance when he was chosen by the Foundation Library Center and the Internal Revenue Service to analyze the tax returns of Foundations across the country.  He is a member of the New York Bar.

After law school, Mr. Lichtman was invited to become a fellow at the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in Amsterdam.  In the two years he spent in Europe, he did research and wrote articles on international tax relations.  He met with tax departments of international corporations and as a fellow of the Bureau, advised these corporations on their fiscal strategies.

 He returned to New York to work for the Mobil Oil Company where he worked in the international tax department, advising on all aspects of tax planning.  He traveled extensively throughout Europe for Mobil. 

From Mobil Oil, he was invited to join Ashley Famous Agency, the theatrical agency to add a financial planning perspective to their client’s negotiation in all aspects of film, television and literary.  At the agency, he worked on all the major projects in theatrical and television production.

Paul Lichtman then went on to work at ABC Records, where he negotiated for the works of top artists such acts as Three Dog Night, Foreigner and many others. 

He then tried his own at “show business,” establishing  himself as a versatile actor and writer.  As an actor, he is most recognized as the affable yet cantankerous janitor on “Barney Miller.  As a writer, Mr. Lichtman penned episodes of a number of television shows, including, 'All in the Family" and "The Bob Newhart Show."             

Wanting to do a co-production with an eastern European author brought Lichtman back to the business of film.  He was invited to a number of European countries to set out a program of co-productions.  He started working extensively with Yugoslavia (now Croatia), serving as its presence in Los Angeles and bringing numerous projects to Croatia.  He was involved in production, distribution and financing of over 30 features films and over 130 hours of primetime television.  Including  “The Winds of War”, “War and Remembrance”, “Sophie’s Choice”, “Transylvania 6-5000”, “Dirty Dozen” among others.

Mr. Lichtman built his business by ensuring that all phases of foreign film production were accomplished with ease and efficiency,  negotiating agreements with investors, banks, and governmental authorities.  Adapting to a variety of economic climates, he has proved to be proficient in financing film and television debt financing through alternate means.  He utilized non-remittable profits of Dow Chemical to provide services on a feature “Transylvania 6-5000”.  He bought country debt from Manufacturer’s Hanover Bank to capitalize the filming of the Dirty Dozen series for MGM and the Fox Network.  Mr. Lichtman has helped finance below the line costs by crafting numerous barter, treaty, subsidy and counter trade deals. 

Lichtman exercised his counter trade and eastern European expertise with such corporations as Dow Chemical, Manufacturer’s Hanover, Rank Xerox, Westinghouse and Minnesota Mining. 

Mr. Lichtman also served as the European Producer for the Warner Bros. series entitled "The New Adventures of Robin Hood".  The Lithuanian Film Studio, with whom Lichtman worked as consultant, representative and co-producer, completed 52 one-hour episodes in the four years to produce this body of work.  During that period, Lichtman oversaw the modernization of the Lithuanian Film Studio and its crew.

His company also provided film services for three Showtime movies.  Lichtman brought USA Network’s “Attila the Hun” into Lithuania.  "Attila" was the largest mini-series ever to be produced in Eastern Europe.

Fluent in four languages, he can converse with his European associates in English, German, Dutch, and French, in addition to a modest amount of Serbo-Croatian.  He served on the Board of Directors of the US-Yugoslav Economic Council. .He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Writer’s Guild and the Screen Actors Guild.  He is also a member of the New York Bar.