Indie Off the Fence makes trio of hires

Production and distribution company Off the Fence (OTF) has expanded its team with three appointments in sales and digital.

Joining from Pilot Productions, and a previous employee of Banijay Group, Rebeca Fernandez (pictured) will join OTF as sales manager.

Fernandez will be responsible for sales to Latin America, Hispanic US, Iberia, the UK and Ireland. She will report to Ludo Dufour, managing director for sales and coproductions at the company.

At Pilot, she was head of sales.

Jia Zhao will join OtF’s international team from China as a sales and production executive. She will be selling content to China, Taiwan and Korea and strengthening relationships with local coproduction partners.

Zhao will report to Anouk Van Dijk, sales manager at OTF, and work alongside senior sales executive Gem Leiarde.

Dufour said Fernandez and Zhao’s “international experience, multilingual skills and expertise in content production and distribution will prove invaluable and contribute to further our global growth”.

Also joining is Victor Eckard who will act as director of digital media. Eckard has previously worked across Naspers’ SVOD business ShowMax and M-Net pay TV channels.

Ellen Windemuth, CEO and founder of Off the Fence, said: “Victor’s depth of knowledge in both linear and non-linear businesses will prove invaluable to Off the Fence’s digital media strategy. He will be a true asset to the team and we look forward to working with him.”

This comes after Dufour was named MD of sales and copros at OTF in January. TBI revealed previous OTF MD Daryl James had left after a decade.