BBC Studios appoints GMs for APAC

Fiona Lang, Ryan Shiotani

BBC Studios has appointed two general managers to lead the business in Australia and New Zealand and South and Southeast Asia.

Fiona Lang, who currently serves as chief operating officer for ANZ, has been promoted to GM for Australia and New Zealand, where she will lead the Sydney-based branded services team – including marketing, advertising and creative – as well as commercial and content sales teams.

Lang has been chief operating officer for BBC Studios in Australia and New Zealand since 2014 – a role in which she has focused on setting the regional strategy, including the optimisation of branded services; growing business and client relationships; and overseeing operations and IT and legal and business affairs in the region. Her work covered all business units which BBC Studios operates in the ANZ region.

Elsewhere, Ryan Shiotani, currently acting SVP of branded services for Asia, has been promoted to the role of SVP and GM for South and Southeast Asia, based in Singapore and leading the branded services, marketing, creative, content and affiliate sales teams in Southeast Asia and India.

Ryan Shiotani joined BBC Studios in 2007 as director of programming for Asia, overseeing the editorial direction of BBC Studios’ branded services in Asia, including programming, acquisitions, presentation planning and media planning. As VP of content, he has built the company’s portfolio to include BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle, BBC First, CBeebies and BBC Player across linear and digital platforms. He also works closely with Sony BBC Earth, BBC Studios’ joint venture with Sony Pictures Networks India.

In August 2019, Ryan became active SVP of branded services for Asia, leading the marketing, creative and insights teams locally.

Both roles report directly into Jon Penn, EVP of BBC Studios APAC, as part of the newly formed Asia-Pacific (APAC) regional business, which incorporates Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Lang and Shiotani join the existing APAC exec leadership team, which includes the following:

• Kelvin Yau, SVP & General Manager, Greater China
• Geo Lee, SVP & General Manager, North East Asia
• Phil Hardman, SVP Commercial Operations & Strategy, Asia
• Julia Nocciolino, SVP Commercial Director, China
• Laura Byrnes, Head of Business and Legal Affairs, APAC
• Laura Parsons, HR Business Partner, APAC
• Laura Dumbrell, Head of Communications, APAC
• Angela Muddle, Head of Commercial Finance, Asia

Jon Penn, EVP for BBC Studios APAC, said: “I’m delighted to promote these outstanding leaders to the roles of General Manager and have every confidence that they are the right people to lead the teams to the next level of growth in the APAC region.

“As COO for ANZ, Fiona has clearly demonstrated her strategic and commercial ability, as well as an aptitude for project and team leadership. Ryan has successfully developed and led the Branded Services portfolio in Asia, recently stepping up as Acting SVP for Branded Services and demonstrating his business leadership credentials.”