HBO Max Announces Leadership Team For Europe, The Middle East & Africa

WarnerMedia announced today that Christina Sulebakk, previously General Manager HBO Europe, will take up the role of General Manager HBO Max EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). In her new position, Christina will be responsible for upgrading current HBO streaming services in existing markets (HBO Nordic, HBO España, HBO Portugal and HBO Go in Central Eastern Europe) to HBO Max services starting in 2021, and for the expansion in due course of HBO Max into more territories across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She reports into Johannes Larcher, Head of HBO Max International.

As previously announced, the existing HBO-branded streaming services in Europe will start the upgrade to HBO Max later this year. Until then, HBO Europe's streaming services will be fully focused on continuing the unique content offer to its many subscribers.

Sulebakk has over the years held several key executive positions at HBO Europe and played pivotal roles in launching HBO Nordic, HBO España, and HBO Portugal, as well as in transforming HBO's Central European business into streaming and most recently in developing the go-to market strategy for HBO Max LatAm.

Today Sulebakk also announced her HBO Max EMEA leadership team, uniting a group of experienced executives with combined decades of experience within the DTC business across Europe.

Line Mykland will be leading the Content Experience team, which will be responsible for developing and implementing the editorial strategy and vision for the HBO Max platform in EMEA - with a focus on the local audience and customer base. Mykland has been with HBO since 2012, where she was deeply involved in the launch of HBO Nordic. Since then Mykland has played a pivotal role for HBO Europe in driving OTT business performance and improving Programming, Product, Technology and Operations across the company and most recently for leading the transition to the HBO Max platform.

Roberto Soto is heading up Growth Marketing. He will be leading and overseeing a team, which includes Commercial Strategy & Business Development, Subscriber Acquisition, CRM & Customer Service, Social, Brand, Digital Creative and Activations & Publicity. Soto is new to the company, and brings a strong background as a senior executive leading the strategy and operations of various streaming subscription businesses in Latin America, the US and Europe.

Brett Horowitz will be leading Data, Insights & Planning, where he will be overseeing the Finance & Strategy and Data & Insights teams to provide data and competitive intelligence insights. Horowitz has been with WarnerMedia for more than 17 years, starting in New York with HBO and working in various corporate finance positions including supporting HBO's International businesses, Technology Operations and OTT and streaming. Since 2013 Horowitz has been based in Stockholm holding the role of CFO HBO Nordic.

Tobias Andersson will be the EMEA regional legal lead. He will be part of the HBO Max global legal team led by David Ho. Andersson has worked extensively with OTT and streaming in Europe for more than a decade and joined HBO Nordic in 2014 as General Counsel. Most recently, he worked as deputy General Counsel of HBO Europe.

Andreas Ferdinand will be leading Product Experience. Ferdinand will have a dual reporting line to both the EMEA team and the HBO Max Global Product team under Sarah Lyons to shape the app experience across all major platforms throughout EMEA. Ferdinand has 18 years' experience developing consumer-facing products for the telecom and media industry and has been with HBO Europe since 2019.

Mark Spivey will be the Talent Lead, developing a people strategy that supports the overall HBO Max priorities and shapes the culture in EMEA. Spivey has over thirty years' experience in both the business partner and specialist sides of HR in a global context. Mark was THE HEAD of HR for HBO Europe until last year, when he moved into a global role to define WarnerMedia's approach to succession planning, talent reviews, high-potential engagement and performance.

Christina Sulebakk said: "With this strong group of executives, their great experience from decades of working within the D2C business and their highly skilled teams, we are more than ready to upgrade our HBO-branded services across Europe to HBO Max, while also planning, preparing and launching in many new territories across EMEA in the years to come. Supported by all our WarnerMedia colleagues and as part of a best-in-class global HBO Max team, I couldn't be more excited about the ambitious plans for HBO Max and THE JOURNEY ahead of us."

HBO Max EMEA will collaborate closely with WarnerMedia International colleagues building on the partnership with Priya Dogra, President, WarnerMedia EMEA & Asia (excl. China), and members of her team including Hannes Heyelmann (Programming), Antony Root (Original Production), Pierre Branco (Affiliate Sales) and Vanessa Brookman (Kids). The partnership with the executive leaders and their teams in these areas has already begun and is pivotal to the success of HBO Max in EMEA.

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