Shine Group Announces Extended Group Roles For Shine Australia Joint CEOs: Carl Fennessy to additionally become CEO Shine USA / Mark Fennessy to adopt role of President, Shine Network
Shine Group today announced that Shine Australia and New Zealand joint CEOs Carl and Mark Fennessy are to assume additional group responsibilities as CEO Shine USA and President, Shine Network respectively.
The new roles, complementary and in addition to their current Shine Australia positions, will see the pair continuing to drive the business in Australia, where they will be supported by an enhanced senior management team. Additional management appointments for Shine Australia are currently being considered and will be announced shortly.
Carl Fennessy will adopt the role of CEO Shine USA, responsible for driving the ongoing commercial strategy of the company and reporting to CEO Shine Group Americas Emiliano Calemzuk. Based in Shine Group America’s HQ in Los Angeles, he will relocate later in 2011 keeping a regular presence in Sydney.
Mark Fennessy undertakes the newly created role of President, Shine Network, working with the London based internal unit responsible for the development, acceleration and editorial stewardship of key Shine Group formats such as MasterChef, The Biggest Loser and One Born Every Minute. Continuing to operate from Sydney, he will focus in particular on forging new co-production relationships in countries where there is currently no Shine Group presence.
Elisabeth Murdoch, Shine Group Chairman and CEO said: “Mark and Carl have taken Shine Australia from a standing start to the market leader in barely over a year. An extraordinary achievement that is down to their respective and complementary creative and commercial skills, and the energy and drive they share. Their new, extended roles come in recognition of this and will respectively allow the Group to further benefit from these skills.”
Carl Fennessy said: "I'm delighted to take up this highly challenging position at Shine USA and acknowledge the faith and support which Liz and Shine Group have afforded me. I look forward to working closely with Emiliano, Eden and the U.S. team to create exceptional content across all media platforms and to continue to build on our success to date at Shine Australia".
Mark Fennessy said: “I’ve worked extensively with the Shine Network team on many of Shine Australia’s successful shows and look forward to doing so even more in this new role.”
Emiliano Calemzuk said: “We are thrilled to welcome Carl to the US team, he is a creative and commercial leader as the rapid success of Shine Australia is testament to. His talents will be very suited to our market and our companies here, and I hugely look forward to bringing him together with the team we are building here.”
Established in January 2010, Shine Australia produces both scripted and non-scripted programming for the Australian and New Zealand markets. These include Junior MasterChef, The Biggest Loser, Australia’s Next Top Model, Dating in the Dark and soon to be launched new series The Renovators (Network Ten), The Voice (Nine Network) Wife Swap (Lifestyle) and The Family (SBS). Before Shine Australia, Mark and Carl Fennessy were CEO and Chief Operating Officer at FremantleMedia Australia, prior to which they successfully launched and managed independent production company Crackerjack.
Further information
Shine Group Patrick Keegan patrick.keegan@shinegroup.tv +44 207 985 7021 07990 555305
Shine Australia
Bronwen Hodgson Sally Burleigh Public Relations bronwen@sbpr.com.au 02 9555 2285 / 0407 553 370