Hong Kong – Celestial Pictures announced the appointment of Gillian Zhao Fang as managing director, China. Based in Beijing, Zhao will be responsible for growing all of Celestial Pictures’ business lines in mainland China including channel distribution, content licensing, and film and television series production. Zhao will help drive distribution of Celestial Pictures’ Shaw Brothers Film Library to traditional and new media platforms in China. In particular, she will focus on developing partnerships with digital platforms and content creators in China to extend the reach of the SB Library as well as create new IPs based on iconic Shaw Brothers films and characters. Zhao will also be ramping up Celestial Pictures’ TV series and movie production efforts in China. Celestial Pictures will distribute these productions globally, and select titles will also debut on Celestial’s bouquet of movie and general entertainment channels. Finally, Zhao will provide support to the programming and distribution teams by sourcing and acquiring mainland Chinese content for Celestial Pictures’ channels and distribution outside of China. Zhao was previously senior vice president, sales and syndication of Star (China) Ltd. responsible for the company’s advertising sales, distribution and syndication in China. Under her leadership, the China sales team made significant contributions to News Corporation’s revenue in China. Prior to joining News Corporation, she was country manager of Apple China and before that, deputy general manager of Microsoft (China).