Warner Bros. Discovery has set out its India, Southeast Asia and Korea (INSEAK) leadership team under Clement Schwebig, as president and managing director.The Thursday announcement follows just hours after a similar rejig of the EMEA leadership team under Priya Dogra.Both Schwebig and Dogra report to Gerhard Zeiler, president of international for the merged company. Zeiler, a former WarnerMedia executive, now oversees the global channels business with a “dotted line” to international streaming lead JB Perrette, a Discovery veteran. Zeiler previously held the same role for WarnerMedia, and now also has responsibility for Discovery’s international footprint.As with the EMEA revamp, there is a strong emphasis on territory management. “Our region will be structured with a territory focused approach to be more agile and locally relevant,” Schwebig said in an internal note. “At the same time, we will leverage our scale across the business and region to provide deeper expertise and greater efficiency. This means some functions will be in-country while others are regional.”Those included in Schwebig’s team are as follows:
- Discovery veteran, Jeeyoung Lee will be GM Korea;
- Arjun Nohwar will be GM India. He was previously responsible for the launch of HBO MAX in India;
- Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong will see Shonali Bedi lead affiliate distribution and digital partnerships for Southeast Asia, while continuing to head business development and insights regionwide, and Cindy Ma heading affiliate distribution and advertising sales for Taiwan.
- Tony Qiu will transit from Southeast Asia, but retain his current role for China.
On the content (programming, original production and acquisition) side, WBD will operate three verticals:
- Magdalene Ew will continue to head entertainment;
- Christopher Ho will head Kids;
- Lynn Ng will head factual & lifestyle whilst she continues her current role for content operations for the wider region.
In other INSEAK regional functions:
- Kurt Rieder will continue to lead theatrical distribution as well as being part of the international theatrical operations headed by Andrew Cripps;
- Jae Chang will continue to lead TV distribution and home entertainment; Vikram Sharma will lead consumer products licensing, while also continuing to oversee advertising sales for Southeast Asia;
- Jason Monteiro will head an integrated marketing team across INSEAK in addition to his coordination role for streaming services. He will manage marketing and creatives services across all lines of business, while working closely with the D2C marketing team.
- Schwebig said that he and James Gibbons, president for WBD in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, will share resources in content operations, insights and creative services to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Schwebig will continue to make other management adjustments over the next 18 months. His priority tasks are: “streaming services HBO Go in Southeast Asia and discovery+ in India, growth of the Kids space in India, the group’s unscripted content output in Korea, and big movies like ‘Super Pets’ and ‘Black Adam’.”Executives confirmed as leaving the enlarged group include:
- Megha Tata, who headed Discovery’s portfolio and brands in India and oversaw the launch of the discovery+ streaming service;
- Yasmin Zahid, who headed HBO/WarnerMedia affiliate distribution for the past three decades, will leave after a transition period;
- Leslie Lee, previously leader of WarnerMedia Kids in APAC, where he recently launched Cartoonito and numerous Asian originals including “Lamput”;
- And Athreyan ‘Auto’ Sundararajan who had led the marketing and creative teams of the legacy WarnerMedia businesses.
“It is always difficult to see accomplished colleagues and friends leave, and I am so grateful for all their contributions to making our company the success it is today,” said Schwebig.
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