WarnerMedia restructures several Asia business operations and leadership

As it looks to keep pace with rapidly changing market currents, WarnerMedia International, the owner of diverse properties such as HBO, Cartoon Network and CNN, is re-shaping its leadership structure across India, southeast Asia and Korea. As part of this recast,  the organisation will be led by Clement Schwebig, head of WarnerMedia for India, Southeast Asia and Korea, while Siddharth Jain, SVP and MD south Asia, and Jessica Kam, SVP of Original Productions – Entertainment, will be leaving.

They join other recent senior exectives who have departed Warner, including Sunita Rajan, who quit as senior VP of ad sales for CNN and moved to Bloomberg. 

Schwebig was previously managing director South East Asia, ANZ & China - Warner Media Entertainment Networks. 

This new structure unites WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks (comprising the legacy Turner and HBO businesses) with Warner Bros. (Theatrical Distribution, TV Syndication, Home Entertainment as well as Consumer Products, Gaming and Location Based Entertainment), the company announced. This setup will now include TV brands (HBO, Cartoon Network and CNN), the HBO GO streaming service, Warner Bros. franchises like Looney Tunes and the entire DC universe.

Schwebig said: “(This structure) is designed to sharpen our focus on the consumer and build stronger relationships with our local partners. Integrating our commercial activities, content and marketing functions will enable us to leverage our enhanced scale and bigger footprint of consumer touchpoints across our varied businesses, brands, franchises and platforms.”

As part of this shift, Warner has announced a series of leadership appointments in the region: 

• Athreyan Sundararajan leads an integrated group marketing team for all WarnerMedia business, including advertising and distribution sales trade, consumer and brand as well as theatrical. Creative services and social media will also report into him.
• Magdalene Ew takes charge of the company’s consolidated entertainment pillar including all HBO channels, Warner TV and Oh!K as well as 鼎级剧场 (Ding Ji Theatre) in China. She will also oversee all entertainment original productions in the region, including HBO Asia Originals.
• Shonali Bedi heads up strategy and operations including all transformation initiatives in the region and also takes on expanded responsibilities for research and insights
• Leslie Lee continues to lead all the Kids brands for WarnerMedia across Asia Pacific, including India, Southeast Asia and Korea.
• Yasmin Zahid heads up Affiliate & B2B Distribution for all WarnerMedia linear TV networks including HBO channels, CNN International, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, POGO, Warner TV and Oh!K, as well as lead B2B carriage partnerships for the HBO GO streaming service
• David Simonsen continues to lead the development of HBO GO in Southeast Asia. He will work closely with Johannes Larcher’s global HBO Max team to lay the foundation for its future launch.
• Jae Chang heads up TV Distribution and Home Entertainment overseeing all physical and digital distribution licensing for all WarnerMedia content in the region.
• Vikram Sharma takes charge of consumer products, advertising and partnerships leading both the licensing and merchandising business for all WarnerMedia IP, brands and franchises, as well as the advertising sales business for all WarnerMedia brands on all platforms linear and digital.
• A new lead for Theatrical Distribution is being identified. In the meantime, all country managing directors will report directly into Schwebig.

WarnerMedia operations in this region comprises the regional streaming service HBO GO, its suite of basic and premium linear TV channels in the kids, news and entertainment genres including HBO, CNN International, Cartoon Network, Boomerang. as well as regional and local brands such as Oh!K and Warner TV in Southeast Asia and POGO in South Asia. 

Its Warner Bros. businesses include the production of original content in the region; distribution of US-produced content through theatrical exhibition, home entertainment and licensing to TV networks; as well as gaming, location based entertainment, consumer products and licensing for key WarnerMedia brands and franchises, including DC and the Wizarding World.