Primitives Names New Managing Director

Primitives has appointed Simone de Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne as its new managing director, taking over for Jan Huyse.

Huyse, who has headed the specialist formats distributor since 2018, will hand over management of the company on January 1. De Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne has been with the company since 2022, serving as director of sales and acquisitions.

De Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne joined Primitives from Be-Entertainment, where she was responsible for format sales. She has also held executive sales and acquisitions roles at Nordic World, Magnify Media and Absolutely Independent. For the past ten years, she has also run her own consultancy, Cliffhanger Media, specializing in format discovery, marketing, pitching and dealmaking.

“Primitives started as small vehicle to help three Belgian independent producers distribute their formats to the wider world,” Huyse said. “Seeing it develop into a solid player in the formats market is one of the great professional pleasures of my long career in the business. I want to thank our rightsholders and clients for their trust, our shareholders for giving us a free rein in terms of plans and ambitions and, of course, the great staff that made it all happen. Special thanks go out to Siobhan Crawford for daring to be bold and opening up our limited Belgian point of view. Finally, I could not be happier that Simone is taking over the baton. Her excellent work as sales and acquisitions director has helped make this little Belgian company the number-one independent distributor in the world. And I’m convinced there’s a lot more to come.”

De Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne added, “Primitives has achieved the rare feat of sustaining growth, revenue and relevance in a volatile global market. The past year has been one of our strongest yet, with formats including 99 To Beat, Zero Stars and The Ultimate Celebrity Car Park Showdown Squad picking up real momentum internationally. We seem to have hit a sweet spot between scale, quality and originality—plus, we can draw on Belgium’s well-deserved reputation for creative risk-taking and quirky storytelling. I’m looking forward to continuing to build on this success with our brilliant team, strong creative partners and formats that deserve the spotlight.”