Endemol Shine exec departures confirmed following Banijay takeover

LR: Nicola Bamford, Wim Ponnett

Banijay has confirmed that Wim Ponnet, Endemol Shine Group’s chief strategy & commercial officer, and its international operations chief Nicola Bamford, are leaving the company, following its acquisition by the French company.

Ponnet, whose departure was revealed by TBI earlier this month, joined Endemol Shine in 2015 having been senior director of strategy & operations at Yahoo EMEA, where he worked with former Channel 5 and now Getty Images CEO Dawn Airey.

He held an expansive global remit at Endemol Shine across all sales and commercial divisions, including oversight of distribution, licensing, digital sales and monetisation.

Ponnet was also tasked with identifying and pursuing new business opportunities, and had led the sales process over the past 18 months for Endemol Shine, which was previously owned by Disney and Apollo Global Management.

Bamford, who arrived at Endemol Shine from Sky in 2017 to replace Martha Brass, assumed direct responsibility for operating companies in China, France, Iberia, India, Italy, Israel and South East Asia.

In confirming the departures, Banijay said it “had to trigger a number of redundancies through the integration process to adequately streamline the business for the future.”

The duo become the latest senior exec departures from the Endemol Shine side, with the news following the completion of Banijay’s $2.2bn deal on Friday, which saw CEO Sophie Turner-Laing confirming her exit as expected.