ZDFE Hires Bernadette Schugg to Head Network Movie

Bernadette Schugg has been appointed CEO of Network Movie Film- und Fernsehproduktion, a subsidiary of ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE).

Schugg will take the reins from Jutta Lieck-Klenke as the company’s third CEO on April 1, 2022. In her new role, she will take over the management of the Hamburg site with Lasse Scharpen, who launched the development of Studio Zentral in Berlin two years ago.

Schugg started her career in 1990 at Bayerischer Rundfunk, before working for RTL and ProSieben. Since 2011, she has worked as producer and sole managing director of Moviepool in Munich.

Fred Burcksen, president and CEO of ZDFE, said: “Jutta Lieck-Klenke has notched up some outstanding achievements for Network Movie and the ZDF Enterprises network. We’d like to thank her for her impressive successes and are delighted that she will continue to support us as a freelance producer. At the same time, we’re pleased to have been able to appoint Bernadette Schugg, a proven expert, as her successor and wish her every success and all the best in her future work.”

Schugg said: “It is a great honor and pleasure for me to be succeeding Jutta Lieck-Klenke, allowing me to work with fantastic colleagues like Wolfgang Cimera and Lasse Scharpen in the near future to help shape the future of the company! I have personally enjoyed a respectful and friendly collegial relationship with Network Movie for many years and a trusting collaboration with ZDF for more than 20. It’s for this reason that, in these exciting times, I’m now particularly looking forward to tackling the production challenges with a highly motivated and skilled team at our sites in Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Munich and to working with the best creative minds in our industry. I am glad that we will continue to have Jutta Lieck-Klenke at our side as a ‘guarantor of quality’ in the capacity of freelance producer. I would like to thank the Tellux Group for the trust they’ve placed in me over the last ten years as managing director of the Moviepool subsidiary.”

Scharpen commented: “I’m very pleased to be working with Bernadette Schugg to advance the versatility of our developments over a broad front. On the one hand, we’ll be focusing on continuity and doing everything we can to maintain the quality of the films that is the hallmark of Jutta Lieck-Klenke and her team. On the other, we will work together across the sites to develop new series formats, series and films tailored to meet the demands of the changing audience structures.”