Kudos CEO exits Endemol, Shine

Kudos chief executive Jane Featherstone and Princess founder Henrietta Conrad are leaving the newly formed Endemol Shine Group.

Jane Featherstone

Featherstone joined Kudos in 2000 as head of drama and has served as CEO since 2011 during which time the prodco, owned by Shine prior to its merger with Endemol and Core Media, achieved notable success with series such as Broadchurch.

She will remain executive producer on a number of forthcoming projects but will work with chief operating officer Dan Isaacs and the senior creative team on a transition over the next few months, before leaving in May 2015. She will then take a break for the rest of the year.

Conrad founded Princess 18 years ago but stepped back from the CEO role in 2013 to become chairman, relinquishing day-to-day running of the Got to Dance prodco.

The pair became joint chairmen of Shine’s UK TV business in March 2012 following the departures of co-MDs Karen Smith and Jamie Munro.

Shine was merged with Endemol and Core by the production giants’ parent companies Apollo Global Management and 21st Century Fox at the turn of the year.

Henrietta Conrad

Currently known as the Endemol Shine Group, the merger was confirmed in October and the staff structure announced at the end of December underneath CEO and former BSkyB MD of content Sophie Turner Laing.

Featherstone said: “I’ve been considering taking a break away from work and with Kudos entering a new phase as part of the new joint venture between Shine and Endemol now feels like the right moment for me to go. I plan, and look forward to, taking a proper break once my latest slate of shows is complete.”

In addition to Broadchurch, which was remade by Fox in the US as Gracepoint and has been sold to 150 territories worldwide, Featherstone oversaw a slate of drama that included Spooks, Hustle, and Life on Mars/ Ashes to Ashes, The Hour and Anglo-French coproduction The Tunnel.