Endemol names new CEO

London, Amsterdam – Endemol, the world’s largest independent production company, announced that Group President Marco Bassetti has decided to step down from the company.

Marco Bassetti first joined Endemol in December 1997 when Aran, the leading Italian production company he founded in 1989, was acquired by the Group. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Endemol Group in October 2007 and was promoted to President of Endemol Group in August 2009. Since June 2011 he has been working alongside CFO Just Spee as joint interim CEO of Endemol. 

Following Bassetti’s departure, CFO Just Spee will be appointed CEO of the Group.

Just Spee joined Endemol as CFO in 2010, and since June 2011 has effectively been managing the company alongside former Group President Marco Bassetti whose departure was recently announced.

During this period the business has outperformed budgeted EBITDA, delivering year on year revenue growth of 10% to nearly 1.4 billion Euros in spite of a challenging market.  At the same time the company made decisive steps towards a successful capital restructuring and is now in the final stages of this process.

The company’s growth in 2011 has been driven by a number of factors including significant expansion in scripted programming, where year on year growth was 34%.  Across the year the company produced 189 formats in all entertainment genres, 56 of which were new shows produced for the first time, whilst its global distribution operation added 1,000 hours of new programming to its catalogue, bringing the total to 24,000 hours. 

Other factors included growth in emerging markets, and continued success for established formats such as The Money Drop and Big Brother, which aired in 87 countries in 2011.