Shinfield Studios’ Nick Smith and Ian Johnson to retire

The daily operations of Shinfield Studios will be led by Dean Horne, Vice President of Global Studio Operations, and Charlene St Aubyn, Financial Controller. Both have been part of the studios’ team since the early phases of construction. 

Smith and Johnson have played a key role in creating the UK’s largest new film and television studio which has 18 sound stages and supporting facilities and is situated close to Reading in Berkshire.

They oversaw negotiations to acquire the 1,000,000ft² site, the facilities masterplan design, securing planning permission and its construction.

Shinfield has so far hosted productions including Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte, Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, feature film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and an upcoming adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree.

In a statement, Shinfield said that having built the management and operations team responsible for the day-to-day running of the site and attracting major productions from clients such as Disney, Sony and Netflix, Smith and Johnson have decided this is the right time to hand over to the established Shinfield Studios operations team. 

Peter Rumbold, CEO of Shinfield-parent company Shadowbox Studios, said: “I would like to thank both Nick and Ian for all of their efforts in helping to create a world class film and television studio in Shinfield. They’ve paved the way for our best-in-class operations team, led by Dean Horne, and secured an exceptional pipeline of productions into 2025 and beyond.”

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