Ex-Sky non-scripted chief to lead Mentorn

Former Sky head of non-scripted Celia Taylor has joined Tinopolis Group-owned UK factual prodco Mentorn Media.

Taylor left UK satcaster Sky last year as Phil Edgar-Jones took over all non-scripted programming.

She has now been named managing director of Robot Wars producer Mentorn, replacing Jonathan Hewes, who will now solely focus on another Tinopolis prodco, Pioneer Productions.

While at Sky, Taylor commissioned shows such as A League of Their Own, Wild Things and Ross Kemp’s Extreme World, as well as the Mentorn-produced comedy-travelogue An Idiot Abroad.

Before that, she was director of programmes at Virgin Media, overseeing four digital channels, and was also a factual commissioning editor at UK pubcaster the BBC and a freelance producer.

She is now in control of shows such as BBC politics debate series Question Time and mechanised battle bot format Robot Wars, which is being remade in various new territories.

Her hire follows that of former BBC Worldwide, Fever Media and NBCUniversal unscripted exec David Mortimer, who joined Tinopolis as its first director of content in January.

Taylor will report to Mortimer, who said she was “one of the most talented and well-liked TV executives”.

Her appointment follows what Tinopolis claimed was Mentorn’s “busiest year in a while”.

Former chief Hewes, who previously worked at Wall to Wall, joined Tinopolis in July last year as chief executive of Mentorn and How the Universe Works producer Pioneer, a move that preceded the exit of long-time Mentorn MD Kirstie McLure.

Last week, Tinopolis’ management bought out private equity firm Vitruvian, which had owned a 50% stake in the group.