Warner Bros. Discovery international boss Gerhard Zeiler has unveiled a new international leadership structure for the company following various executive departures and restructurings.
“Following my recent announcements about the departure of Priya Dogra, Robert Blair, Hannes Heyelmann and Pierre Branco, I have been working with the leadership across the international business to create a new International structure that best leverages the strengths of our businesses, while empowering all of us to drive the future growth and success of the company,” he said in a memo. “After many discussions I am now pleased to share with you the new international leadership team, who will report into me.”
As far as key regions go, Latin America will continue to be led by Fernando Medin.
Meanwhile, in the Asia Pacific area, the India, Southeast Asia and Korea (INSEAK) and Western Pacific regions will be united into a single APAC region under the leadership of James Gibbons.
Elsewhere, Clement Schwebig, who has managed INSEAK for the company since 2020, will now take over responsibility for Germany/Switzerland/Austria (GSA), France, Benelux and Africa, which will be brought together into a single Western Europe & Africa market cluster under his leadership.
As previously unveiled, Andrew Georgiou has taken over as head of business in the U.K. and Ireland in addition to leading WBD Sports Europe.
In Europe, Alessandro Araimo will continue to run Southern Europe, which combines Italy and Iberia, while Christina Sulebakk will continue to run the Nordics region. Poland will continue to be led by Kasia Kieli.
Jamie Cooke, who oversees the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) and MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey) regions and has responsibility for creative and all pay-TV channels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), will take on additional oversight of unscripted and linear content acquisitions. Myriam Lopez-Otazu, who is responsible for “sourcing and maximizing unscripted utilization across the EMEA WBD portfolio” in collaboration with Meredith Gertler’s team, will now report into Cooke, Zeiler unveiled.
His memo also detailed the following roles:
Ragnhild Thorbech will keep responsibility for scripted acquisitions “to more fully integrate the content strategy for Max and will become part of the Global Streaming Content Leadership team,” reporting to Meredith Gertler, executive vp, global content strategy, planning and analysis.
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,” the memo detailed.
“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,” Zeiler said. “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.”