ITV Studios Ups Richard Life

LONDON: Richard Life has been promoted to head of acquisitions and co-productions at ITV Studios Global Entertainment, while Emmanuelle Namiech is stepping down from her post after more than a decade at the company.

Namiech is currently the director of acquisitions and co-productions at ITV Studios Global Entertainment. “Following more than ten extremely enjoyable years at ITV I feel incredibly proud to have worked with some of television’s most talented producers," she said in a statement. "We have established a global name for the division and I have every confidence that Richard will do a tremendous job in leading the team forwards.”

Lee Bartlett, the managing director of ITV Studios, added, “I’d like to thank Emmanuelle for all her passion and dedication over the past ten years at ITV. Emmanuelle has been instrumental in helping build the division into a globally recognised player, famous for representing some of the best scripted and non-scripted content by forging relationships with quality producers from around the world and we wish her good luck in the future.”

Life fills the newly created role of head of acquisitions and co-productions with immediate effect. He and his team are responsible for sourcing, developing, managing and funding content for the international division. "Richard brings more than 20 years of TV experience to his team and has been key to expanding our pool of key suppliers and bringing innovative and fresh content for our in-house sales-team to distribute," Bartlett said. "This appointment today is well deserved and shapes an exciting new era for the division, and I’m confident that our producer partners will join us in congratulating him in his new role.”

Life added: “2010 is looking to be an exciting year for the division, which will include the U.K. premiere of the co-funded AMC/ITV Studios drama The Prisoner and new factual series including Breakout (Raw tv), I Shouldn’t be Alive (Darlow Smithson) and Future Food (Gala Film). I’m delighted to be taking on this new role, which will incorporate us working closely with the very best in scripted and unscripted producers from around the world.”

He has been with ITV since October 2007, after a number of years at C4i.