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BBC Worldwide Content Chief Helen Jackson to Depart

She will remain at the newly formed BBC Studios, which will combine the BBC’s production arm and BBC Worldwide, throughout 2018.
BBC Worldwide chief content officer Helen Jackson has decided to leave the commercial arm of the U.K. public broadcaster after 31 years, management unveiled on Friday.

She will remain at the newly formed BBC Studios, which will combine the BBC’s production arm and BBC Worldwide, throughout 2018, “working closely with indie partners and continuing as a director on the board of a number of invested indies,” it said.

BBC Worldwide CEO Tim Davie, who will now be CEO of BBC Studios, said: “Helen’s contribution to the BBC is hard to overstate. She has had both the vision and the relationships to attract numerous producers to BBC Worldwide over many years and is rightly held in the highest regard both inside and outside the organization.”

He and BBC Studios chief creative officer Mark Lindsey on Friday also unveiled their final members of their executive committee, with the latter saying that “we are looking forward to getting on with growing BBC Studios as a world-class home for British creativity.”

The appointments will take effect in April with the formation of the new company. The executive committee will be responsible for the day-to-day management of BBC Studios.

Among other appointments, the company named four genre managing directors. Hannah Wyatt will be the managing director for factual entertainment and events; Lisa Opie will oversee factual programming; Nick Betts scripted and Suzy Lamb entertainment and music content.

“Each MD will be responsible for leading the commercial, creative and business teams within BBC Studios production, and developing and implementing the business strategy for their genre,” the BBC said.

The BBC has said key goals of the formation of the new single commercial unit will be “maximizing the intellectual property value of BBC programming for the benefit of U.K. license fee payers” and “supporting the U.K. creative economy by distributing British content as a cultural export and source of global influence.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter