Germany‘s UFA Group has brought in a senior Netflix exec, as part of a management re-org.
Natalie Clausen has been named COO of the Fremantle-owned German production giant, and will join its management board on February 19.
She was most recently Senior Production Manager for German-speaking countries, working on productions such as The Empress, Kleo and Liebskind. Prior to Netflix, she worked on big-ticket German shows such as Babylon Berlin and UFA shows Charité and Deutschland 89.
She’ll report to UFA CEO Sascha Schwingel, who took on his role in September. Schwingel replaced Nico Hofmann, who had been with the Generation War maker for more than 25 years.
Clearly, the restructuring didn’t end there, and the addition of Clausen will “provide valuable input to create even more space for creativity in a flexible, lean organization and with the clever use of technology,” according to Schwingel.
Further changes will see Joachim Kosack stepping down from the management board to concentrate on leading UFA Serial Drama along side Markus Brunnemann.
“I would like to expressly thank Joachim for his many years of successful work in the UFA management and am pleased that he is now concentrating his extensive expertise on UFA Serial Drama,” said Schwingel. “This puts us in an excellent position for the further development of our important long-running daily series.”
Over at UFA Documentary, the maker of All or Nothing: Die Nationalmannschaft in Katar, Gwendolin Szyszkowitz-Schwingel is exiting her Managing Director role at the end of the month. Marc Lepetit will lead the division on his own in future.
Szyszkowitz-Schwingel’s exit has been made “in the interests of the company and by mutual agreement,” according to UFA.
“I would also like to thank Gwendolin for setting up the UFA Documentary and realizing excellent productions such as Mythos Jungfernhäutchen and Young, Wild and Limitless. I wish her all the best for her professional future.”