WarnerMedia International Sets New Asia Team

WarnerMedia International has unveiled its new leadership team for India, Southeast Asia and Korea, combining the networks business with Warner Bros. theatrical distribution, TV syndication, home entertainment, consumer products and location-based entertainment.

The new team reports to Clement Schwebig, head of WarnerMedia for India, Southeast Asia and Korea. “We have tremendous depth and breadth of talent across our organization and combined, we are definitely better together,” Schwebig said. “We’ve put in place a unique organizational structure for growth that is designed to sharpen our focus on the consumer and build stronger relationships with our local partners. Integrating our commercial activities, content and marketing functions will enable us to leverage our enhanced scale and bigger footprint of consumer touchpoints across our varied businesses, brands, franchises and platforms.”

Yasmin Zahid heads up affiliate and B2B distribution for all WarnerMedia linear TV networks, including the HBO channels, CNN International, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, POGO, Warner TV and Oh!K. Zahid also takes the lead on B2B carriage partnerships for the HBO GO streaming service. David Simonsen will continue to lead the development of HBO GO in Southeast Asia and will work closely with Johannes Larcher’s global HBO Max team to lay the foundation for its future launch. Jae Chang will oversee TV distribution and home entertainment, overseeing physical and digital distribution licensing for all WarnerMedia content in the region. Vikram Sharma will take the lead on consumer products, advertising and partnerships. A new exec to lead theatrical distribution is being identified.

Magdalene Ew has been tasked with overseeing the consolidated entertainment pillar, including all HBO channels, Warner TV and Oh!K as well as Ding Ji Theatre in China. She will also oversee all entertainment original productions in the region, including those for HBO Asia. Athreyan Sundararajan will lead an integrated group marketing team for all WarnerMedia business. Shonali Bedi heads up strategy and operations. Leslie Lee continues to lead all the kids’ brands for WarnerMedia across AsiaPac.

With the new appointments, Siddharth Jain, senior VP and managing director for South Asia, and Jessica Kam, senior VP of original productions, entertainment, will be exiting.