VIMN Taps Commercial & Business Development VP for Oz, NZ

Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has named Chris Ellis VP of commercial and business development for Australia and New Zealand.

Ellis will manage content distribution partnerships for Viacom’s media brands across linear, mobile, IPTV, SVOD, TVOD, MVOD, apps and third-party digital platforms, as well as other digital business opportunities throughout the region. He will work out of the company’s Darlinghurst office under Ben Richardson, senior VP and general manager of VIMN in Australia and New Zealand.

Most recently, Ellis was a partner in the digital innovation-consulting firm Blue Road Group. Previously, he co-founded and led business development for cloud-management software firm GorillaStack. He has also worked for Trinity Mirror, IGN Entertainment, MySpace and AOL.

“Chris possesses a vast amount of experience across the media landscape, and comes to VIMN well-poised to bring our content and IP to audiences across all platforms,” stated Richardson. “He will be a great ambassador with our growing list of distribution partners, and I’m very pleased to welcome him into the role.”

Meanwhile, Robyn Campbell was hired as VIMN’s program sales manager for Australia and New Zealand. She will oversee all program sales to third-party broadcasters across the region, reporting to Ellis and Lauren Marriott, VIMN’s U.K.-based VP of international program sales. Campbell has 15 years of experience working in programming sales.

“Viacom’s brands have been part of the Australian and New Zealand media landscape for well over 20 years,” added Richardson. “We’re committed to ensuring our content is available everywhere consumers want it, and Chris and Robyn are bound to keep our titles front-of-mind with our partners.”