Beyond International has appointed Kate Llewellyn-Jones as CEO of its international distribution division.
Llewellyn-Jones’ first task in this newly created role will be to combine the Beyond Distribution business with its recent acquisition, TCB Media Rights, to create a merged business operating under a new name, Beyond Rights.
In addition to the Beyond and TCB teams in London, the new business will incorporate Beyond’s office in Dublin and team members based in Sydney.
Beyond Rights will then have a catalogue of more than 7500 hours covering an extensive range of unscripted genres and documentaries, in addition to scripted content, feature films, children’s programmes and formats. Key long-running titles in the combined catalogue include Love It or List It, Mythbusters, Abandoned Engineering, Underground Worlds and Border Patrol.
For the past 18 months, Kate Llewellyn-Jones has been a commercial consultant, working with a select number of distributors, as well as with Rights Tracker. Prior to this she was managing director of TCB Media Rights from 2015-18 and before that spent 12 years at Cineflix Rights, most recently as senior vice president, sales & acquisitions management, driving the content and sales strategy for the business.
Mikael Borglund, CEO and MD of Beyond International, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Kate to the team and look forward to working with her on strategy for the new Beyond Rights business going forward. We are extremely lucky to have someone with her experience, reputation and vision in this new role, and have every confidence that she will capture the best elements of both Beyond and TCB to create an exciting, fresh and dynamic new force in the international rights management business.”
Kate Llewellyn-Jones said: “Following the recent announcements about expanding both its distribution and production capabilities, it’s certainly a very exciting time to be joining Beyond. I am looking forward to re-connecting with the team at TCB Media Rights and to getting to know the people at Beyond – as well as the wide range of incredible producer partners that work with both businesses.
“Bringing these companies together to create Beyond Rights is a unique opportunity and a positive message to a marketplace currently beset with much uncertainty. Beyond Rights will be able to provide scale, volume and stability, combined with creativity, innovation and flexibility – all of which I hope will prove a very interesting new proposition to buyers and producers around the world.”
Due to varying lockdown conditions, the full merger process is expected to last for a couple of months.
Michael Murphy, Beyond Distribution’s general manager, will be remaining with the Beyond Group in an executive director role working alongside Mikael Borglund on recent joint venture BeyondTNC, as well as corporate administration and business development.
Borglund said: “Michael is a long-standing and much-admired colleague, so we are delighted to be retaining his valuable experience and management expertise to help grow new opportunities for the Beyond Group.”
Murphy will be based in Dublin, where Beyond’s international operations are headquartered.
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Top Photo: Kate Llewellyn-Jones