Blue Ant names Northern MD

Canada’s Blue Ant Media has changed the senior management of Australia’s Northern Pictures after buying the Racat Group of production companies and ZooMoo Networks from David Haslingden last year.

Sue Clothier

Former Endemol Australia exec Peter Anderson becomes MD of the Sydney-based factual prodco as its founder Sue Clothier moves to the new role of head of content and production with the remit to expand output.

Anderson also serves as senior VP of commercial finance for Blue Ant Media’s global production unit, which in addition to Northern comprises Dunedin-based NHNZ, Singapore’s Beach House Pictures, Antenna Pictures in London, Toronto-based Blue Ant Canada and Omnia Media in LA.

Catherine Nebauer continues to head the kids’ business at Northern Pictures, while Karina Holden remains head of factual.

Clothier, Nebauer and Holden report to Anderson, who was director of finance and operations at Endemol Australia from 2011 to 2015 and before that spent five years as chief financial officer of Southern Star.

For the past two years, Anderson has consulted for a number of businesses, primarily the Endemol Shine Group in Amsterdam, where he worked on projects including the development and implementation of a five-year strategic plan.

Clothier founded Northern Pictures in 2010 and notched up impressive credits including Life on the Reef (Oz pubcaster the ABC, PBS, Arte), Kakadu (ABC), Outback (PBS, Nine Network) and Changing Minds (ABC). Most recently, the unit produced theatrical feature documentary Blue, directed by Holden and James Bogle’s Whiteley.

“When I started Northern Pictures, the idea was to create high-quality content that has the capacity to make a positive difference in people’s lives,” Clothier said. “Over that time, we’ve produced over 260 hours of content with some 70 hours currently in production for Australia and the rest of world.

”Corporately, it’s smart to shake up the structure to be both more efficient and, in our business, more creative. I’m looking forward to having the time now to focus on my slate, that builds on our success to date.”

Sam Sniderman, executive VP of production at Blue Ant Media, added: “Although Sue has a great commercial acumen, she is most passionate about developing and producing her own slate of content. As such, it makes sense to bring in additional resources to allow that to happen and we are delighted to be able to do so, both for Sue and for the company.”

Of Anderson, he said: “We are excited to bring Peter’s talent and experience into the company and strongly believe he will ensure Northern Pictures continues to grow and expand its output of high-quality content in Australia and internationally.”