Media Release

WarnerMedia EMEA Expands Barbara Salabè's Remit

November 6th, 2020 Priya Dogra, President of WarnerMedia EMEA & Asia (excl. China) today made a key new announcement regarding her EMEA executive team.

Barbara Salabè, newly appointed as Country Manager for WarnerMedia Italy, is now taking on broader responsibilities with the addition of the company’s operations in Spain and Portugal to her remit.   

Salabè, who previously served as President and Managing Director, Warner Bros. Entertainment Italy, will oversee all WarnerMedia’s commercial and group marketing activities in these regions, reporting directly to Dogra as a member of her executive team. Salabè has been with the company for 9 years, and earlier in her career also led WarnerMedia’s Turner channels business in Italy.

Priya Dogra said: “During her time leading Warner Bros. in Italy, Barbara has delivered enormous value by growing our business with a sharp strategic eye and a deep understanding of how to connect with audiences. Her strong creative flair has seen the local production pipeline she established go from strength to strength.  I’m excited to see how her ability to constantly innovate will further invigorate the businesses and networks now under her management.”

As a Country Manager, Salabè is responsible for the development and execution of WarnerMedia’s strategy in these regions and will coordinate and optimise all commercial and group marketing activities in the regions. This will include theatrical distribution, local theatrical productions, content licensing, home entertainment and consumer products, well as ad sales and affiliate distribution for the WarnerMedia channels.  She will work closely with functional leaders in the US and across Europe.

Salabè’s colleagues on the WarnerMedia EMEA leadership team include recently promoted fellow country managers Polly Cochrane (UK & Ireland), Iris Knobloch (France, Benelux, Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and Pierre Branco (CEE, Nordics, the Middle East, Turkey and Africa) who is also head of affiliate and ad sales for EMEA.

Complementing the country manager structure are additional executive leadership colleagues, recently promoted heads of functions Hannes Heyelmann and Antony Root, who respectively lead the general entertainment programming and original production remits.  Rounding out the team, Pedro Cosa continues to lead data and insights for networks; and Lesley Bailey and Cecilia Persson continue their leadership of the central EMEA kids and young adults team, with a dual report to Dogra and Tom Ascheim, President of kids, young adults and classics for WarnerMedia.

The reorganisation follows the announcement in August that WarnerMedia was bringing the international operations of Warner Bros., HBO and Turner under one leadership for the first time, with Gerhard Zeiler, to whom Dogra reports, named as head of WarnerMedia International.

 

About Barbara Salabè
Barbara Salabè most recently served as President and Managing Director, Warner Bros. Entertainment Italy, where she was  responsible for the general oversight and development of all of Warner Bros.’ businesses in Italy, including theatrical and home video production, marketing and distribution (both Studio and local-language films), television distribution, consumer products, digital distribution and interactive entertainment, before assuming additional oversight of WarnerMedia’s networks business. She joined Warner Bros. in November 2011, having previously served as Managing Director, Stage Entertainment, a role she held since 2007, where she was responsible for setting up the leading European musical production company’s Italian business, including theatre acquisition and restoration, production, ticketing operations and sales and marketing. Prior to her tenure at Stage Entertainment, she spent four years as Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Turner Broadcasting System Italia, overseeing the Italian start-up of Cartoon Network and Boomerang, including production, localization, distribution and advertising sales, and acting as President of CNN Italia S.p.A.

Barbara Salabè started her career in Germany at the Kirch Group and, after moving back to Italy, she was responsible for channel acquisition for the pay-TV service Stream.

About WarnerMedia
WarnerMedia is a leading media and entertainment company that creates and distributes premium and popular content from a diverse array of talented storytellers and journalists to global audiences through its consumer brands including: HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros., TNT, TBS, truTV, CNN, DC Entertainment, New Line, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies and others. The organization also includes Xandr’s suite of advanced advertising solutions designed to help to improve advertising for brands, publishers, and consumers.

Contact
Claudia Coles, Claudia.Coles@turner.com, +447785725 705