Zodiak rejigs Lat Am business

Zodiak Media Group (ZMG) has reshuffled its Latin American operations and put a new CEO in charge of the firm’s joint venture with Ricky Martin Entertainment (RME).

ZMG said yesterday it had created a new division called Zodiak América Latina and had appointed its CEO of Southern Europe, Giorgio Gori, to head it.

At the same time, it renamed its Miami-based production unit RM 5to Elemento, a business established together with Martin 18 months ago, and installed a new CEO.

Harris Whitbeck was previously chief creative officer at the company, now rebranded Zodiak Latino. He replaces Simon Junker, who was made CEO of the JV soon after its creation under RME CEO Bruno Del Granado.

A spokeswoman for ZMG today confirmed that Junker has now left the company but was unable to clarify the circumstances around his departure.

Whitbeck was exec producer of La Expedicion, the Spanish-language version of UK format Beyond Boundaries, for Mexico’s Televisa network, and El Peso del Matrimonio (Back in Wedding Shape) for US Hispanic channel Galavision.

ZMG said that its partnership with RME would continue to address opportunities in the joint development of music-based formats that would be produced by Zodiak Latino.

The JV will sit within Zodiak América Latina, a division that also houses the Rio de Janeiro-based Zodiak Brasil. The Brazilian arm was set up in October last year and continues to operate under the management of CEO Paolo Nocetti and chief operating officer Carla Affonso, formerly at prodco Mixer.

Nicola Drago, who was previously Zodiak’s M&A manager and group business controller, has been named chief operating officer of Zodiak América Latina.