Vue Names Chair; BBC Studios Adds To Exec Team; Canal+ Gets New CFO — Global Briefs

Jesse Whittock

23 May 2024 at 6:06 am·2-min read

Vue Names Ian Fraser As Chair

Former Kwik Fit CEO Ian Fraser is the new Non-Exec Chairman of British cinema chain Vue. He succeeds Stella David, who is exiting to run gambling biz Entail. Fraser is currently working for infrastructure business M Group Services, but is best known as CEO of car servicing business Kwik Fit and COO of Orange UK. He takes up his new post on June 1, leading a non-exec board also including Katrina Cliffe, Henry Birch and Tom Singer and working alongside Vue CEO Tim Richards, CFO Alison Cornwell and COO Matt Eyre. Vue recently underwent a debt restructuring that saw about £50M ($63.5M) of debt converted into equity. This came after The Hollywood labor strikes, which hit cinema operators hard. However, the likes of Dune: Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4 have helped the sector bounce back in 2024. UK-based Vue has well over 200 multiplexes in Europe and Taiwan.

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BBC Studios Adds To Exec Team

BBC Studios, the commercial wing of the BBC, has hired Susannah Clark as Chief Communications and Marketing Officer. She also joins the executive committee when she begins the newly-created role in August, reporting to CEO Tom Fussell. Clark joins from fashion platform Farfetch, where she was EVP of Communications for seven years. She has also headed up comms for Candy Crush owner King Digital Entertainment and MoneySuperMarket.com. She joins in a big year for BBC Studios, with the new-look Doctor Who recently launching on the BBC and Disney+ and kids brand Bluey breaking streaming records in the U.S. The hunt for a new production chief continues, while the unit’s borrowing limit has been increased as it seeks further acquisitions in the vein of the BritBox International takeover. BBC Studios has been targeting revenues of £3.2B annually in 2027, when the charter agreement comes up, with £450M returned to the BBC.

Canal+ Gets New CFO

France’s Canal+ Group has named Amandine Ferré as its CFO. As of September 16, she will succeed Grégoire Castaing, who is Deputy General Manager in charge of Finance and strategy, and report to Chairman Maxime Saada. Ferré will also join the executive committee. Castaing has led the Canal+ financial department for 12 years, with 2023 being the first time the pay-TV and content giant had surpassed €6B ($6.5B) in turnover. For the past month, long-serving Canal+ exec Ferré has been working on an IPO project and before that was Director of Business Development at subsidiary Studiocanal. She held the same role for Canal+ in India between 2018 and 2021, and between 2017 and 2018 worked at streamer Dailymotion, the international streamer owned by Canal+ parent Vivendi.

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