Endemol Shine poaches AOL exec

Big Brother Italy

Big Brother prodco Endemol Shine Group has hired James Hayr from digital firm AOL to become its head of sales.

Hayr will work within the production giant’s commercial partnerships team, which Wim Ponnet leads.

At AOL, Hayr was head of branded content, where he worked on integrating in-house units such as The Huffington Post and the AOL Originals video business into the wider group. He has also worked at publishers Emap and Conde Nast.

His Endemol Shine post will see him reporting to director of commercial and strategy Ponnet. His duties will include “identifying and linking global commercial brand partners and opportunities, growing the group’s overall branded content and content marketing business, [and] boosting monetisation opportunities”.

“As we look to further increase across our non-linear output James’ wealth of experience in content-led advertising and multiplatform will be invaluable,” said Ponnet.

Endemol Shine has been diversifying through new units such as a games development and publishing wing launched in August last year.