Deadline: Priya Dogra Exiting Warner Bros. Discovery After 14 Years

Story from Deadline:

Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA boss Priya Dogra is exiting the company after 14 years in post and her role is being closed.

Dogra has been serving as President & Managing Director, EMEA since the high-profile merger of Warner Media and Discovery. In an email to staff in the past few minutes, her boss Gerhard Zeiler said the pair had “mutually agreed” that she will leave at the end of this year. Zeiler’s full email, which was obtained by Deadline.

Going forwards, the EMEA team will report to Zeiler and Dogra will not be replaced. The EMEA team is split into regions with the likes of Antonio Ruiz running UK and Ireland, Christina Sulebakk overseeing Nordics and Jamie Cooke looking after the Baltics, Middle East, Mediterranean and Turkey.

Zeiler said the news “will come as a surprise to many, especially because Priya has been a key partner to me and has been instrumental in many important developments at our company during her tenure.” Her exit is the second major international departure in a fortnight, following TV distribution chief Robert Blair, who will also not be replaced.

Dogra has been with the company for almost 14 years, during which time she has risen up the ranks, taking on roles including Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for Time Warner, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development for WarnerMedia and President of WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks EMEA & APAC prior to various mergers.

She was one of the big winners of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, taking on the large EMEA role under Zeiler, with a number of country managers reporting into her. The move will therefore come as much of a surprise to the international community as Zeiler said it will to staff. Dogra was due to keynote the RTS London confab in a few weeks, for example.

Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing to implement layoffs and restructures as it grapples with various macroeconomic shocks, the streaming downturn and dual strikes.