In the past few minutes, Warner Bros Discovery has set out plans for its new look international sales team following Robert Blair‘s exit.Warner Bros Discovery International President Gerhard Zeiler sent an internal memo revealing the new Warner Bros Discovery International TV Distribution structure, which will be in place following next week’s Mipcom.This follows Zeiler’s conversations with Warner Bros Discovery’s international licensing teams, including those from the long-serving Blair’s team, local units and U.S. execs on the future shape of the sales division.The resulting restructure will see Phil Goodhew, SVP Commercial Strategy, International TV Distribution and Allan Stenhouse, SVP International TV Marketing, now reporting to David Decker, President of Content Sales. The pair will work closely with International leadership and local licensing teams from both a commercial strategy and marketing perspective, to “ensure a smooth operating rhythm and information flow across all the sales teams,” wrote Zeiler.Decker, who oversees Warner Bros Discovery’s domestic sales business, will now lead global content licensing agreements with major clients with worldwide footprints such as Netflix, Amazon, Roku and Paramount.Alastair McKenzie SVP, International Legal and his legal team will continue to support international sales teams. He will continue to report to Alessandra Chichi, Group SVP, International Legal within the Legal team and play the key role he has played across all deals.Zeiler has also asked Louis Goldstein, SVP International Business Operations, to work closely with Decker “provide a central coordination role across international content sales in a similar manner that Louis and his team support coordination efforts with our US domestic counterparts for the international home entertainment business.”The changes come after a spate of exits from Warner Bros Discovery’s international division over recent months, with the likes Priya Dogra, Pierre Branco and Hannes Heyelmann all exiting, alongside Blair, who had worked at Warner Bros for 25 years.Last week, Zeiler outlined the shape of the international programing team following those exits. James Gibbons has been promoted from Asia Pacific, India, Southeast Asia and Korea (INSEAK) and Western Pacific boss to run all of APAC, while Clement Schwebig, who has managed INSEAK since 2020, will now have responsibility for GSA, France, Benelux and Africa, which will be brought together into a single Western Europe & Africa market cluster under his leadership.“I again want to acknowledge the contributions of Robert Blair, for whom I have the highest regard,” wrote Zeiler. “Some of us who will be at Mipcom will be able to send him off in style, with many of you who have worked with him for so many years.”Zeiler will be delivering a keynote speech at Mipcom Cannes on Monday.
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