Please wait...
Please wait...

Warner Bros Discovery cements leadership team under Zeiler following merger

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has cemented its international leadership team under London-based head Gerhard Zeiler following the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia.

Gerhard Zeiler

Execs including Priya Dogra, James Gibbons and Anil Jhingan are taking on expanded roles, and Whit Richardson is departing the company.

WBD International appointed Dogra as president and MD of EMEA (excluding Poland), overseeing the company’s footprint across the region. She will continue to be based in London and will oversee the integration and operations of the Discovery and WarnerMedia International organisations across EMEA.

Gibbons has been named president and MD of Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In addition, he will continue to manage the Nordics region on an interim basis. Gibbons’ remit previously included Discovery UK and Ireland. However, those markets will now move under Dogra’s purview for an interim period. He is currently based in London and will remain so until early next year when he will move back to Asia.

Jhingan, who is currently president and MD for Discovery Asia Pacific, will take a new role leading business development for the merged WBD group across all of its international markets.

Priya Dogra

Meanwhile, Richardson, who served as president, WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks, Latin America, is set to leave the company after a transition period. During his tenure, Richardson was integral to the company’s growth in the region, including overseeing the launch of HBO Max in the region.

São Paulo-based Fernando Medin has been appointed president and MD, Latin America and US Hispanic, overseeing the combined business in the region including its portfolio of channels and key sports rights.

“Our combined international business has significant scale and a diversified portfolio – both geographically and across lines of business,” said Zeiler, who serves as president of WBD International, in an internal memo seen by C21. “As a result, when deciding the new leadership structure, we wanted to ensure that we had dedicated regional leads to reflect the scale and complexity of the business which would, in turn, increase focus on key markets.

“This results in a different geographical split to the pre-merger state which will also allow each of the regional leaders to more rapidly assess opportunities for growth and efficiency and to integrate the two companies quickly.”

In addition, WBD International named Clement Schwebig president and MD of South-East Asia (SEA), Korea and India. He is based in Singapore, from where he has been running the WarnerMedia business operation since 2020.

Elsewhere, Gillian Zhao will continue in her role as president, China. Tony Qiu, who is current general manager, senior VP for Greater China, SEA and APAC for direct-to-consumer business, will continue in the role. London-based Andrew Georgiou, president and MD of WBD Sports, will retain his current portfolio which includes Eurosport, PlaySports Group, Golf portfolio (PGA Tour, GOLFTV and Golf Digest) and the sports events business.

Robert Blair will continue to head up the licensing business as president, WBD International Television Distribution. He is jointly responsible with each of the regional presidents for the licensing of all WBD’s TV and film content. In addition, Ronald Goes will continue as executive VP and head of international TV production.

The appointments follow the completion of the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia to form Warner Bros Discovery.

The closure of the deal came at the end of a hectic week that saw the departure of a slew of high-profile WarnerMedia execs, including CEO Jason Kilar and Ann Sarnoff, who served as chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group. A further six execs departed the company as Zaslav cleared house ahead of the completion of the merger. A senior team based in the US includes Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros Television Group, and Casey Bloys, chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max.

RELATED ARTICLES

Please wait...