Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) president of international Gerhard Zeiler has unveiled his new international leadership team after a number of senior staff departures in recent weeks.
The new appointments come after the exits of EMEA president Priya Dogra, head of international TV distribution Robert Blair, Germany head Hannes Heyelmann and French general manager Pierre Branco.
In Asia Pacific, the INSEAK and Western Pacific regions will be united into a single APAC region under the leadership of James Gibbons.
Clement Schwebig, who has managed INSEAK since 2020, will now have responsibility for GSA, France, Benelux and Africa which will be brought together into a single Western Europe & Africa market cluster.
As previously announced, Andrew Georgiou head WBD’s business in the UK & Ireland in addition to leading WBD Sports Europe, which Gieler said reflects the “significant synergies between TNT Sports, Discovery+ and linear networks in the UK.”
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In an email to WBD staff, Zeiler also outlined the rest of the international leadership team:
- Latin America will continue to be led by Fernando Medin.
- Poland will continue to be led by Kasia Kieli.
- Jamie Cooke, who oversees CEE and MENAT and has responsibility for creative and all pay-TV channels across EMEA, will take on additional oversight of unscripted and linear content acquisition. Myriam Lopez-Otazu, who is responsible for sourcing and maximising unscripted utilization across the EMEA WBD portfolio in collaboration with Meredith Gertler’s team, will now report into Cooke.
- Ragnhild Thorbech will maintain responsibility for scripted acquisitions to more fully integrate the content strategy for Max and will become part of the Global Streaming Content Leadership team. She will report to Meredith Gertler, EVP, Global Content Strategy, Planning and Analysis.
- Alessandro Araimo will continue to run Southern Europe, which combines Italy and Iberia.
- Christina Sulebakk will continue to run the Nordics region which integrates Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
- Vanessa Brookman will continue to run the EMEA-KIDS business.
- Ronald Goes will continue to oversee international production unit WBITVP, which includes 21 production companies in 13 countries in EMEA and APAC.
- Qaisar Rafique will continue to lead Commercial Strategy for EMEA and APAC.
- Louis Goldstein will continue to lead Business Operations for International and expand his coordination responsibility for International Home Entertainment to also encompass Content Licensing.
Zeiler said: “I am delighted to have such a terrific International leadership team with the skills and capabilities to successfully lead us through the next stage of Warner Bros. Discovery’s growth. This team has both the attitude and competence to manage the complexity of the International business and a One Team mindset to collaborate effectively with the global partners across the company.
“I am fully aware that change can be unsettling, and we have had a lot of changes in these last 18 months. In addition to the organisational and personnel changes, we are also experiencing a difficult macroeconomic situation in combination with an acceleration of the transformational industry trends. This is not an easy situation for any company to manage through, including ours. But I am convinced, more than ever, that with our clearly defined strategy, the IP we have, and the content we produce along with your incredible dedication and commitment to our business, we are in the strongest position to successfully manage the changes and continue to thrive.”
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