Endemol Shine Strengthens Licensing Division

AMSTERDAM/LONDON: Endemol Shine Group has made a pair of senior hires for its licensing and brand development teams, while also elevating Frances Adams to global director of brands and licensing.

Adams previously served as director of brand development at Endemol Shine. In her newly expanded role, she is responsible for strategically managing the licensing division while also overseeing such brands as MasterChef, Simon’s Cat and Mr Bean. Before joining Endemol Shine, Adams was the creative director for BBC Worldwide Consumer Products.

Endemol Shine also appointed Jane Smith as commercial brand executive. Smith previously was chief commercial and creative director at Entertainment Rights, and executive director at twofour54. She has worked on the content strategy and commercial development of such global brands as Postman Pat, Transformers, Lassie and Where’s Wally? Smith recently served as a licensing consultant for Endemol Shine, where she is now charged with driving the commercial performance of brands within the company’s portfolio, with a focus on growing the consumer products division. She will work under Adams.

In addition, Alice Bernardi was named head of U.K. licensing. She is expected to help expand Endemol Shine’s L&M business in the country, working with both established and new IP across the U.K. group. In her newly created position, which is effective this month, she will report to Lucinda Hicks, the company’s COO for the U.K. Bernardi joins Endemol Shine from specialist licensing agency TLC and previously worked for Viacom and Warner Bros.

“Frances has played an instrumental role in establishing the commercial partnerships team at Endemol Shine Group and is brilliantly placed to take on this new role; it is great to have Jane and Alice on board, who bring with them a wealth of experience in the licensing field,” said Wim Ponnet, the group director of strategy and commercial development at Endemol Shine. “Our goal is to continue to identify new strategic opportunities for our amazing on-screen brands off-air and drive forward the commercial performance of our portfolio.”