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Zinc promotes for Blakeway

UK-based production outfit Zinc Media, formerly known as Ten Alps, has promoted one of its factual producers to MD at its current affairs and historical programming subsidiary Blakeway.

Lucy van Beek

Lucy van Beek

Lucy van Beek takes up the role at Blakeway as part of Zinc’s wider drive to expand its output to include specialist factual production. Denys Blakeway, the founder of the company, is stepping back to take a less hands-on role although he will still be involved in the firm.

Since 2015, van Beek has been working within Zinc as an executive producer for the company’s documentary arm, Brook Lapping. She was responsible for BBC2’s The Greatest Tomb on Earth, Nat Geo’s China’s Megatomb Revealed and The Secret Life of Puppies and Kittens for Channel 5 in the UK.

She began her career working at the BBC’S Natural History Unit on Sir David Attenborough’s Song of the Earth.

Fiona Stourton, creative director at Zinc, said Blakeway “already has a fantastic reputation for producing award- winning programmes in current affairs, history and documentaries, and it’s the perfect next step for the company to move into the internationally popular genre of specialist factual.”

She added: “Lucy is the ideal person to lead the company through this period of growth and we’re delighted to have her on board.”

Van Beek takes up the role from November 1, reporting to Stourton.

Zinc has been restructuring its operations recently, following the exit of CEO Mark Wood in the summer.

The firm said it had no immediate intention to replace Wood but added that Peter Bertram, the firm’s chairman, would spend more time with the business and that chief financial officer David Galan would help to cover Wood’s remit.

Zinc issued a profit warning in May, saying that it expected its full-year results to fall below expectations and prompting its shares to slide.

The company changed its name in February, retaining its TV brands, which include Blakeway, Brook Lapping, Films of Record and Reef Television.

Ten Alps acquired factual producer Reef in a reverse takeover last year at the same time as the UK indie group’s founder, Sir Bob Geldof, stepped down from the board.

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