Veteran named All3 Germany, MME CEO

Markus Schäfer has been promoted to CEO of both All3Media Germany and its subsidiary prodco, MME Moviement.

The long-serving executive was previously managing director of All3 Germany and COO and CFO of MME, but has been upped a year after former incumbent Christian Franckenstein exited.

The news also closely follows a restructuring at All3 Germany’s joint venture with BBC Worldwide, Tower Productions, that saw Arne Kreutzfeldt named MD, with MME MD Marc Lammek leaving as a result and BBCWW’s Philipp Schmid named deputy MD.

Schäfer’s promotion has “finally solved the management issue with regard to our business activities in Germany”, according to All3 CEO Jane Turton.

Schäfer (pictured) has been overseeing the CEO roles at All3 Germany and MME since Franckenstein’s departure. Between November 2009 and October this year, he was also MD of Tower and has been on the All3 Germany board since 2007, which was the year All3 bought MME.

“We are pleased to have acquired Markus Schäfer as CEO in Germany,” said Turton, who become company-wide chief executive last year. “As a leading executive, he is very well acquainted with our company, having held a responsible management position for a long time.

“Moreover, in the course of last year´s ongoing strategic and operational development of both our company and MME, as our most important holding in Germany, Markus Schäfer proved extremely effective.”

Schäfer joined MME in 2004 from distributor TV-Loonland, where he had also been a board member of UK film group Metrodome.

All3 currently owns 94% of MME, which generated revenues of €104 million (US$110 million) in the 2013/2014 calendar year. MME has a US office, which launched in September 2013.

Previous All3 Germany and MME CEO Franckenstein has since joined Bavaria Film as co-CEO.