Rola Bauer to Lead STUDIOCANAL’s U.S. Activities

PARIS/BEVERLY HILLS: Rola Bauer has been appointed to lead all of STUDIOCANAL’s production and co-production television activities in the U.S. market.

Bauer is the CEO of TANDEM Productions. Her responsibilities as a STUDIOCANAL executive have been broadened to include working with and coordinating activities for STUDIOCANAL’s production and partnership companies’ scripted formats and co-productions in the U.S. market, as well as exploring synergies with Universal Music Group. Bauer will also be responsible for strategic alliances with writing/showrunning talent in the U.S. for the studio’s television division. She reports directly to Romain Bessi, COO and head of TV series at STUDIOCANAL.

U.S. sales will be handled by Katrina Neylon, STUDIOCANAL’s executive VP of TV sales and marketing, who reports to Rodolphe Buet, STUDIOCANAL’s president of international distribution and marketing.

“Given Rola’s experience and contacts in the U.S., it was a logical decision that she take a more active role on behalf of all of our production and partnership companies’ scripted projects,” said Didier Lupfer, STUDIOCANAL CEO. “Rola’s long-standing relationships and deep understanding of the U.S. market is an asset that STUDIOCANAL values and from which the entire television business unit can benefit.”

“What fun to widen the scope and further mine the co-pro connections for the whole STUDIOCANAL television production family. They represent the most talented, innovative producers in Europe with track records of delivering premium quality series,” added Bauer. “The merging of top European creatives, STUDIOCANAL’s extensive library and synergizing with the leading global music company, Universal Music Group, presents a wealth of opportunities…tremendous and quite exciting.”

Gina Marcheschi, who joined TANDEM Productions as executive VP of development in July 2015, will support Bauer to cultivate their contacts with creative talent and studio and broadcaster executives in the U.S. for the studio’s production and partnership companies. Reporting to Bauer in her additional role at STUDIOCANAL, Marcheschi is based in STUDIOCANAL’s L.A. offices.

“Gina has done a tremendous job in a short period of time, moving Tandem’s development slate to the next level,” commented Bauer. “She has demonstrated how important it is to STUDIOCANAL’s overall strategy to have a continuous presence in L.A.”