Susanna Dinnage Exits Animal Planet, Nancy Daniels Expands Role

Nancy Daniels is expanding her remit as chief brand officer for Discovery and factual, as Susanna Dinnage, the global president of Animal Planet, announces her departure.

Dinnage has been heading up Animal Planet since September 2017. She joined the company in 2009, having served in such roles as general manager for the U.K. and Benelux and as president of U.K. and Ireland, and as chief content officer for Discovery Networks International.

Daniels is chief brand officer of Discovery and factual, overseeing all creative and brand strategy, development, production, multiplatform, communications, marketing and day-to-day operations for Discovery Channel and Science Channel. She now adds Animal Planet to her purview.

“With the addition of Animal Planet to her portfolio, Nancy will oversee all factual content for the company and its services, including development, production, commissioning and windowing across linear and DTC,” said David Zaslav, Discovery’s president and CEO.

“As we thought about this new structure, we arrived at the difficult conclusion that there is no longer a need for a standalone president role for Animal Planet. Susanna Dinnage, who has been an integral and deeply valued member of our leadership team for a decade, is supportive of this decision and will step down from her role as global president of Animal Planet and leave Discovery at the end of the year.

“Susanna has made enormous contributions here, first in her role overseeing Discovery’s 14 U.K. brands and businesses and steering the London-based production and development department and, most recently, leading Animal Planet. Animal Planet will still very much exist as a linear network, just as Discovery Channel and Science do, but will now be part of this larger group. Over the next few weeks, Nancy and Susanna will work together to create a smooth transition and ensure that the Animal Planet team is set up to succeed in this new structure.”

Dinnage commented: “I have had an incredible decade at Discovery and been privileged to be part of such a purpose-driven, and truly global, company. As the world looks ever more closely at conservation, the past two years at Animal Plant have been particularly rewarding. It’s a very exciting time to be in the world of media and content and I look forward to the future.”