Fremantle has restructured its European operations, appointing CEOs for Northern and Southern Europe and hiring a Paramount Global manager for the latter.
Jaime Ondarza takes on the role of Southern Europe CEO and Georgette Schlick has been promoted to Northern Europe CEO.
Rome-based Ondarza, who most recently served as Paramount Global’s EVP Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa and Head of Streaming Southern EMEA and Latin America, will oversee Fremantle’s production businesses in France, Israel, Italy, Portugal and Spain, including Abot Hameiri. The veteran executive had a long stint at Warner prior to Paramount.
Schlick will continue to look after Belgium and the Netherlands and expand its portfolio to include Scandinavia.
The pair will not be overseeing acting companies overseen by Christian Vesper, who was recently promoted to Global Drama CEO and has now taken charge of companies such as Italy’s Lux Vide, Richard Brown’s Passenger and Scandinavia’s Miso Film.
“We carefully designed this new structure to best support our regional CEOs across Europe,” said Andrea Scrosati, Fremantle Group COO and CEO Continental Europe. “Georgette and Jaime are the perfect choice to fill these key roles and future-proof our rapid business expansion.”
Fremantle has been a big buy lately as it targets €3 billion ($3.2 billion) in sales by 2025.