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Pedersen exits All3Media International

All3Media International MD Louise Pedersen is stepping down to join Playground Entertainment, the drama prodco run by former HBO Films boss Colin Callender.

Louise Pedersen

Louise Pedersen

Pedersen has spent 11 years as MD of All3’s global distribution business, after a stint as director of international sales at UK commercial broadcaster ITV.

“It has been a real pleasure to grow this company but the time is right for me to fulfil a personal ambition by taking on a new challenge, joining Playground Entertainment to oversee UK production operations,” said Pedersen.

Her departure follows that of All3Media CEO Farah Ramzan Golant last month in the wake of approval for Discovery Communications and Liberty Global’s joint acquisition of the company.

In the newly created role of Playground UK MD, Pedersen will play a key role in the US-based firm’s expansion strategy that includes opening offices in London in early 2015, when it will focus on local British programming along with its existing coproduction slate. She will report to Playground founder Callender.

The firm is currently in post-production with All3’s Company Pictures on a six-part miniseries adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, Claire Foy and Jonathan Pryce and set to debut on the BBC and PBS Masterpiece in early 2015.

It has also partnered with Company Pictures co-founder Charlie Pattinson’s New Pictures on The Missing, an upcoming eight-part thriller for the BBC and Starz.

“The role will allow me to broaden my production expertise and to combine two areas that I love: television drama and growing a business,” Pedersen added. “Colin and I have known each other over the years and I have enormous respect for his track record in UK and US drama.”

Playground was founded in 2012 by Callender, who won his first Emmy for the television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. As president of HBO Films, he was responsible for an award-winning slate of movies and miniseries.

All3Media MD Jane Turton, who is now leading the search for Pedersen’s replacement, added that it was an “enormous privilege” to work with the exec.

Earlier this month, Gordon Synn, previously Shine International’s head of digital and home entertainment, joined All3Media International to replace Gary Woolf as senior VP of digital and business development.

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