Australia’s Fred Media taps Charo Penedo, Malgorzata Gudel for sales roles

Malgorzata Gudel (left) and Charo Penedo

Australian distributor Fred Media has added former Warner Bros executive Charo Penedo and ex-The Story Lab senior staffer Malgorzata Gudel to its sales team as part of a company restructure.

Based in Madrid, Penedo will represent Fred’s content in Spain, Portugal, France, Benelux, Italy, Greece and Turkey. She has previously worked as acquisitions senior manager for Warner Bros Discovery in EMEA and Southern Europe, and has held sales roles at Primitives, Cineflix Rights, Discovery and Optomen Television.

Gudel, meanwhile, is based in Warsaw and will sell programming into Germany, Central and Eastern Europe and the Nordics. Her experience covers sales and acquisitions roles at PRO5 Media, The Story Lab, Lagardère Studios and Polish broadcaster TVP.

As part of the reshuffle, US sales consultant Judy Levenson will expand her remit to take in the UK and Ireland market. Recent recruit Jamie I completes the sales team, covering Australia, New Zealand and Asia from Fred Media’s head office in Melbourne.

Finally, longtime Fred Media consultant Kate Llewellyn-Jones is also expanding her role. She is now charged with identifying and managing content partnerships that work across Fred Media and sister company Radar.

Derek Dyson, chief commercial officer of Fred Media’s parent company WTFN, said: “Australia is a long way from many of the territories where our business is growing, so we have made the decision to build a network of in-market regional experts, with a real focus on Europe, and are thrilled to have such experienced and well-respected sales consultants as Charo, Malgo and Judy represent us, alongside Jamie for APAC.

“Kate’s extensive global network, 360-degree understanding of production and distribution and her general industry insights have long proved an asset to our business. But aligning her content partnership activity even more closely with our sales strategy makes total sense for Fred Media as it evolves to both create and capitalise on new opportunities in the changing landscape.”