Starz Restructures Senior Management

BEVERLY HILLS: Starz has tapped two former IMG Global Media executives, Carmi Zlotnik and John Penney, for senior posts at the company, reporting to president and CEO Chris Albrecht.

Zlotnik, as managing director of Starz Media, will manage production of the company’s original series, including Spartacus: Blood and Sand and the upcoming Camelot. He was most recently head of global operations for IMG Global Media and previously spent two decades at HBO. Penney has been named executive VP of strategy and business development. He is tasked with assisting Albrecht in evaluating and building key business strategies, partnerships, and identifying and developing new business opportunities across the various Starz companies. Penney worked with Albrecht at Foresee Entertainment as president and head of corporate development and previously served as head of strategy for IMG Global Media. He, like Albrecht and Zlotnik, is also a former HBO executive.

“Carmi and I have worked together for most of the last 20 years, so I know him to be an executive who has always demonstrated a terrific instinct for the creative as well as the nuts and bolts of production,” Albrecht said. “His wealth of experience, coupled with his close working relationships with many talented producers, will be invaluable for Starz moving forward. Similarly, I have known John for many years, dating back to our days at HBO; he has a wealth of traditional and new media and technology experience which will be extremely helpful as we build Starz into a more multi-dimensional media company.

As part of the new structure at Starz, Bill Hamm is stepping down as executive VP of production and development.