The Story Lab Expands Team, Adds Offices

LONDON: The Story Lab is bolstering its global footprint with several new hires and is opening additional offices in the U.K. and Ireland.

Luci Burnley was named global format director. Burnley has served in a consultative role within the business over the past nine months. She has brokered a number of significant deals for The Story Lab. Burnley previously worked at Content Media’s Small World IFT, where she was responsible for the format business.

Nuno Santos is joining the company to head up The Story Lab Iberia and Sub-Saharan Africa, charged with investing in and distributing new formats. Santos has more than 25 years of experience in the business and has served as head of content and programming director at Portugal’s two leading broadcasters, RTP and SIC. Nuno has also worked at Multichoice Africa as general content manager.

In addition, The Story Lab is opening new offices in the U.K. and Ireland. Sinead O’Connor was appointed as head of The Story Lab Ireland. O’Connor joins The Story Lab with more than 20 years of experience, including having held a senior commercial role at Irish pubcaster RTÉ.

The company is expanding its footprint in the U.K. with The Story Lab North set to open in Manchester on January 3, 2017. Nik Wheatley, who joins the company from ITV, will lead the Manchester office. He will be tasked with growing the business in this region. In addition to his time at ITV, Wheatley has held editorial posts at UKTV and MPG Media Contacts.

Michael Iskas, global president of The Story Lab, commented, “As an investor of premium entertainment content, The Story Lab is also committed to investing in top-level talent, who join us at an exciting time in our development. The wealth of experience and network of contacts that Nuno and Sinead bring to the team will be hugely valuable as we continue to expand our global footprint.”

Michael McCoy of The Story Lab UK added, “I am delighted that we are attracting such brilliant new talent into the business with such great broadcaster knowledge and people who have excellent reputations in both creative and commercial spaces.”

The Story Lab is headquartered in London and has offices in 16 markets, including Los Angeles, Shanghai, Paris, Moscow, Hamburg, Madrid, Sydney and Mumbai.