‘United in Ambition
Diverse in Thinking’

Stéphane Courbit is a French entrepreneur and Chairman of Banijay Group. He started his career as a producer for Coyote and in 1994, he formed a partnership with TV producer and host Arthur to create Case Productions, later called ASP Productions. In 1998, Endemol merged with ASP Productions to form Endemol France and Courbit was appointed CEO. In 2006, he sold his shares before leaving the group in 2007 to create LOV Group, which would concentrate investment in growing markets such as audiovisual production, luxury hotels, the Internet and energy sectors. In January 2008, Courbit created Banijay Group, and in 2016, he triggered the merger between Banijay Group and Zodiak Media, making him the leader of the world’s largest independent production and distribution company (over 3 billion Euro business), responsible for global hit brands including Temptation Island, Survivor, Wife Swap and Versailles.

CEO Marco Bassetti oversees content powerhouse, Banijay Entertainment and burgeoning live events business, Banijay Live. With an extensive premium catalogue that includes Survivor, Big Brother, Peaky Blinders, MasterChef, Let’s Play Ball, Rogue Heroes, Mr Bean, The Summit, the Culpa trilogy, Black Mirror, Deal or No Deal, House of Guinness and Shaolin Heroes, the combined operations operate across 25 territories globally with a diverse, multi-genre portfolio of 130+ production entities and a significant live events operation. With a strong track-record in the international content business, the entrepreneur’s television career took off in the early 1980s, as an executive producer for Mondadori’s Rete Quattro, before moving to Mediaset. In 1986, he founded his own production company, La Italiana Produzioni, and a few years later, he set up Aran. Between 1994 and 1997, he was CEO of Pearson TV Italy and in December 1997, he started Endemol Italy, working as Managing Director and then President until May 2004, when he stepped down to dedicate more time to entrepreneurial activities in Italy and abroad. Still remaining on Endemol’s International Board, in October 2007, he returned to the Group as COO and in August 2009, was appointed President before taking over the responsibility of Group CEO. Stepping down in 2012, he then opened Ambra Multimedia before, in 2013, taking on the role of CEO at Banijay. It is under his leadership the collective businesses have grown to reach €3.3bn in revenues and €528m in EBITDA for the year ending 2024.

Chief Business Officer, Frédéric Balmary, is responsible for supporting Banijay Entertainment’s day-to-day operations, the implementation of long-term business plans, measurement and overarching innovation and growth opportunities. Given his involvement in the scripted business over the past few years, he also continues to support the department in providing finance and business development direction.

Balmary joined in 2011, first as Group Financial Controller, later growing to Deputy CFO, before taking on his latest position. As COO, he led the operations for the scripted production activity in France, while also supporting all international development projects in unison with Banijay Rights. Prior to working for Banijay, he held posts in restructuring at both Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

Since 2017, Nicolas Chazarain has led the legal operations for Banijay Entertainment as Chief Legal Officer. Overseeing legal and business affairs as well as compliance for the now 25-territory strong business, he and his team act as partners in strengthening and safeguarding the group’s operations and IP ensuring a reliable and safe legal environment for the business and preserving and protecting the Group’s interests, which also includes live events operations.

Prior to joining the business, he was a corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions. As a partner at De Gaulle, Fleurance & Associés until 2017, he covered the aforementioned area, as well as private equity, securities law and restructuring. He has also held roles at Slaughter and May in Paris and London, and Bredin Prat in Paris.

As Chief Finance and Transformation Officer, Cédric Brignon is responsible for developing Banijay Entertainment and Banijay Live’s financial strategy, as well as supporting the long-term business plan and mergers and acquisitions activity.

Prior to Banijay, he was Vice President Studio Finance for EMEA at Netflix, having started his career in Audit and Consulting. In post for three years, he took care of the streamer’s finance function for all content production and acquisition in the region, and subsequently played a vital role in the global giant’s significant international growth performance. As a regional lead, he also handled the coordination of the Netflix Studio Strategy and financial planning across his territory remit.

With extensive experience in the finance and management sector, he also held roles at Technicolor and Warner Bros Entertainment, where he was Vice President Finance – IT, Real Estate, France & Benelux.

Marie Schweitzer is Banijay Entertainment’s Chief Strategy Officer having been appointed to the role in September 2016. Tasked with overseeing Strategy, Research and Communications, she supports in setting the group and Banijay Live’s overarching strategy, while identifying strategic expansion opportunities.

Schweitzer joined Banijay at its launch in 2008, as co-Head of Market Research. Since then, she has held various positions in the company including Head of Creative Factory, Content Manager and Head of Content, overseeing the development and circulation of Group formats. Prior to joining Banijay, she worked at Endemol France as Head of Market Research following several years in production. Outside of business, she led a seminar at Sciences Po Paris (Master in Communications): “The International Market of TV Formats: Fundamentals and Challenges”.

Chief Human Resources Officer Anne Van Sprang, acts as Banijay Entertainment and Banijay Live’s strategic departmental head, consulting on the company’s worldwide structure, operations and employee relations.

She joined Banijay from Kering Group, where for two years, she was at the forefront of devising and implementing the business’ HR strategy, as well as overseeing the HR function for the Technology and Digital Division across its 13-territory footprint. Prior to this, she was Human Resources Director at Canal +, providing full HR support to the Technical and IT Division thus contributing to the digital transformation of the Group. She has also held roles at TDF Group and Carrefour.

Cathy Payne serves as Chief Executive Officer, Banijay Rights. Setting and executing the business’ global strategy, she oversees all distribution activity for Banijay Entertainment’s burgeoning catalogue of almost 225,000 hours, which includes landmark brands, Survivor, Big Brother, MasterChef, Rogue Heroes, Deal or No Deal, Mr Bean, Peaky Blinders and Black Mirror.

Previously, Payne spent ten years at Endemol which became Endemol Shine following the merge of the two entities, where she directed all worldwide distribution efforts, steering its six-territory strong team and in-house and third-party content sales, as well as working closely with the commercial team on IP-exploitation.

Prior to taking on the role of Chief Executive, Endemol Worldwide Distribution, Payne was Chief Executive at Southern Star International, which was acquired by Endemol in 2009. There, over the course of 20 years, she was responsible for building one of the largest distributors of English-language content outside of the U.S.

James Townley is Banijay Entertainment’s Chief Content Officer, Development, responsible for driving the development and creation of original non-scripted IP, format acquisitions and documentaries across the 23-territory group and its production entities. Co-leading Creative Networks and the group’s central marketing activity, he supports and champions a strong pipeline of new formats with international appeal. He also manages group level investment in non-scripted via the company’s Creative Fund and internal creative incentivisation schemes.

Most recently, Townley was Global Head of Creative Networks at Endemol Shine Group following his role as Endemol Shine UK’s Director of Operations. He has also held roles at Princess Productions and Sky.

As Chief Content Officer, Operations, Lucas Green co-leads Creative Networks and is charged with overseeing Banijay Entertainment’s superbrands and existing formats. Promoting production best practice in returning formats and reboots, he sets the global strategy for world-class content and priority titles, encouraging roll-out, reinvention and spin-offs. Green joined Banijay in January 2018 from Fremantle having previously led his own production company. In his spare time he is a qualified ECB Foundation Coach supporting junior sports.

As Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, Damien Viel is charged with the group’s overarching digital diversification strategy and leads on spearheading innovation worldwide.

He joined the business in 2023, after a seven-year stint as Managing Director for Twitter in France, where he led the global brand’s local business development and operations. For two years during this tenure, he was also a strategy committee member for Idinvest/Eurazeo.

With a strong track record in the digital space, Viel spent 2011-2015 at Google, the latter part as Director, YouTube and Google Brand solutions for Southern/Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa. Prior to this, he was Deputy General Manager for M6 Publicité, the advertising arm of M6 Groupe, and was also a member of the RTL Group European Trade Executive Committee. With an illustrious career to date, he has acted as General Manager for CARAT France (an Aegis Media company), and before that, he spent seven years with L’Oreal, holding various marketing responsibilities in France and Asia, having graduated from ESSEC.

As Chief Communications Officer for Banijay Entertainment and Banijay Live, Kate Humphreys is responsible for setting and executing the group’s global internal and external corporate communications strategy. Based in London, she works across the group’s 25 territories, partnering closely with the executive team to manage and promote the company’s profile, IP, events and talent worldwide. Also collaborating with the Group’s HR function, she oversees all internal-facing communication activities, campaigns and events.

Humphreys joined the business in 2018 from NBCUniversal International Studios, where she was Communications Director. There she supported the central, formats and production teams to manage all corporate and executive profiling efforts, consumer brand positioning and employee engagement activity. Prior to NBCUniversal, she led the PR efforts at Warner Bros. TV Production UK. In her spare time, she is a trustee and board member for Playing On.