EXCLUSIVE: German major Leonine has scored a coup with the hire of long-time Bavaria Fiction exec Oliver Vogel as MD of Dark producer W&B Television.
The Das Boot exec will remain at Bavaria until the end of January, 2021, joining Leonine-owned W&B from 1 February, 2020, with a focus on development, acquisition and production of TV projects for the German and international markets. He will report to the division’s co-founders and Chief Production Officers Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann.
Vogel has worked as a producer at Bavaria for 12 years, from 2010 as Managing Director at Colonia Media, and from 2014 as Executive Vice President Programming at Bavaria Fiction. Since 2017 he has been Chief Creative Officer at the studio, responsible for productions including Sky and Hulu submarine drama Das Boot, which won prizes at the German TV Awards and Monte Carlo TV Festival.
He also produced shows such as ARD series In Aller Freundschaf, Tierärztin Dr. Mertens and Rentnercops, ZDF series Soko Stuttgart and Dengler, and soaps Herzflimmern and Dr. Klein.
Vogel said: “W&B Television has been one of the most successful and exciting companies in the media industry for many years. Joining this company as managing director feels like a knightly accolade to me. I am very much looking forward to this new challenge, but especially to working with Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann. This opens up an international perspective for me, also in combination with Leonine.”
Quirin Berg commented: “Oliver Vogel is an outstanding producer and manager. He stands for an enormous range of successful projects of great quality. For many years, we have personally held Oliver in high esteem as a colleague who acts with great energy, professionalism, pioneering spirit and charm. It is now a great pleasure to be able to tackle the next stage of W&B Television and Leonine together with him”.
Max Wiedemann added: “Our strengths complement each other perfectly. Together, the cooperation of the various Leonine production companies in the field of fiction will be even more closely intertwined and hopefully bring many exciting projects to life.”
Leonine was formed in 2019 from the merger of Tele München Group, Universum Film, i&u TV, Wiedemann & Berg Film and W&B Television.