SkyShowtime Hires Former Disney Executive Hristina Georgieva as Chief Business Officer

Monty Sarhan, CEO of SkyShowtime, announces the appointment of Hristina Georgieva, formerly a Disney executive, as Chief Business Officer responsible for the income statement for the entire B2B business.

In this new role, Georgieva will oversee and direct the development of new business and agreements with cable, satellite and telcos distributors, as well as platforms, electronic devices and other partners, including retailers, and consumer products and services.

Anteriormente, Georgieva ocupó el puesto de Vice President of Affiliate Distribution & Commercial Development en Disney durante cuatro años, y formó parte del equipo que lanzó Disney+ en EMEA, negociando sus primeros acuerdos con distribuidores de cable, satélite y telcos, incluidos muchos de los territorios en los que SkyShowtime está presente.

Georgieva has focused her career in media, driving distribution and business. Prior to working at Disney, he held leadership positions at Fox Networks Group and Discovery, where he led pan-European commercial strategies, agreements and distribution. Georgieva will be based in London and will join SkyShowtime later this year.

Sarhan se ha mostrado encantado de “dar la bienvenida a Hristina al equipo directivo de SkyShowtime. A lo largo de su carrera, ha establecido un impresionante historial en negociación. Y está especialmente cualificada para dirigir nuestra función de Distribution & Partnerships en Europa. Con SkyShowtime ya disponible en todos los mercados, su amplia experiencia en expansión de la distribución y en generación de negocio ayudará a impulsar la próxima fase de crecimiento de SkyShowtime”.

The no.new streaming service, which has launched in more than 20 European markets in just five months, continues to expand its teams in its offices in Amsterdam, Budapest, Denmark, Stockholm, London, Madrid and Warsaw.

“I am delighted to be joining SkyShowtime, especially at such an exciting time in its journey, having recently completed its launch in Europe,” Georgieva said. “I look forward to working alongside Monty and the SkyShowtime team to grow the business, forge new agreements with distributors and partners, and help bring their iconic, quality entertainment to more audiences.”

Strategic team

Sarhan has also announced the appointment of two other executives who are joining SkyShowtime, coming from other major streaming services. Both are part of the newly created strategy team and report directly to Roberto Soto, Chief Strategy Officer, who joined SkyShowtime late last year from HBO Max.

Brett Horowitz ha sido nombrado Vice President of Commercial Strategy, supervisando la estrategia de crecimiento de suscriptores en los segmentos D2C y B2B, y apoyando a los equipos de Marketing y Distribution & Partnerships. Horowitz se incorpora a SkyShowtime procedente de HBO Max, donde desempeñó diversas funciones, entre ellas Head of Data, Insights and Planning, y anteriormente fue CFO de HBO Nordics durante más de siete años. Comenzó su carrera en medios de comunicación y entretenimiento como miembro del equipo financiero de HBO en Nueva York.

Anazia Wednesday Joins as Director of Content Strategy, to work alongside SkyShowtime's programming team to optimize acquisitions and originals strategy, and drive engagement. Budhwar joins from Netflix, where he served as Strategy and Planning Lead for over three years. Before Netflix, he worked at NBCUniversal in London.

"Together with Hristina, these hires demonstrate that SkyShowtime is becoming a magnet for talent across Europe. Across the organisation, I am very proud of the team we are building. Since joining last year, Roberto has done a great job building a very strong strategy function. Brett and Anazia further strengthen their team, bringing their streaming expertise and increasing our capabilities in key areas," concludes Sarhan.