EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has expanded the remits of three international executives following the exit of Western Europe and Africa boss Clément Schwebig to RTL.
Christina Sulebakk has taken on Benelux, Germany, Switzerland and Austria in addition to the Nordics, Alessandro Araimo will cover France alongside Italy and Iberia, and Jamie Cooke has expanded his CEEMENAT region to include Africa.
Schwebig is leaving at the start of next year to run European broadcasting giant RTL from May. Prior to getting his new role, Deadline is told that Schwebig was due to exit WBD in April when the Warner Bros. streaming and studios arm is slated to split from the Discovery Global channels business. At that point, Sulebakk, Araimo and Cooke would have had their remits expanded anyway, but this is now taking place several months earlier than planned. James Gibbons retains responsibility for APAC until the separation.
The changes were set out in a note to staff from WBD International President Gerhard Zeiler and Latin America and U.S. Hispanic boss Fernando Medin, seen by Deadline. When WBD splits, which could now change if David Zaslav’s media giant is acquired per reports, Zeiler will become Discovery Global’s President, US, UK & Germany, Discovery+ and Chief Content Officer, while Medin will take on the President, International role at Discovery Global. Following next year’s WBD split, Zaslav will run the streaming and studios business while WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels takes on Discovery Global.
“We remain thankful for all your continued dedication and hard work during this period of transition,” said the note from Zeiler and Medin. “These changes reflect our commitment to strengthening our leadership team and driving our organization forward.”
The news is the latest reshuffle in an ever-shuffling WBD international team. There have been a number of restructures since Warner Bros. and Discovery merged in 2022.
Schwebig is returning to RTL to run the Bertelsmann-owned behemoth that owns numerous channels, streamers and production entities throughout Europe.