Leonine COO Markus Frerker to step down at end of the month

Bonn

Dr Markus Frerker is to exit his post as chief operating officer at Germany’s private equity-backed Leonine at the end of the month.

The group, whose holdings include factual firm Gebrueder Beetz and Bonn producer Odeon Fiction, said that he would not be renewing his contract and is departing “upon his own wish and on best and amicable terms to pursue new challenges” effective from 1 April.

Markus Frerker

Frerker exits after a four-year stint at the Munich-based production and distribution group, arriving in 2019 from ProSiebenSat. 1 Media, where he served as chief officer group content with duties including content procurement.

Prior to that he led the German media and TV team as partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he spent 12 years from 2000 to 2013.

Commenting on his departure, Frerker said: “I have had tremendous fun working with Fred and the entire team at LEONINE to build a national champion in the media industry. It has been an incredible journey and a challenging task that we very successfully accomplished.

“Now is a good time for me to move on to new challenges. I look back with a great deal of pride on what we have achieved and wish my colleagues on the management board and the whole Leonine team continued success on their path of further growth.”

Fred Kogel, CEO of Leonine Studios said that Frerker has “worked tirelessly over the past five years to ensure our development into Germany’s market leading media company in production, distribution and licensing. I respect his personal decision to move on to a new chapter in his life and thank him for all he has made possible and accomplished together with the Leonine team.”