Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has announced a new global structure for the companyโs worldwide studio tours, retail destinations, touring exhibitions, and all location-based experiences.
WBD explained that their ethos will โbring together the existing licensed entertainment and owned and operated teams into a single worldwide division.โ
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences will be charged with strategically expanding the companyโs fan facing experiences and pursuing new businesses that capitalise on the Companyโs intellectual property like those with Universal Destinations & Experiences and Miral, and its award-winning operated businesses including Warner Bros. Studio Tours in London, Hollywood, and Tokyo.
โWBD has an incredible mix of location-based experiences for fans around the world, from theme parks and tours to exhibits, retail and more,โ saidย Bruce Campbell, Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer for WBD.ย
โBringing these two teams together under one roof gives us an opportunity to leverage and coordinate the talent and resources across all of our experiential businesses to better delight our consumers through offering even more truly authentic and engaging in-person experiences and events in every market.โ
WBD Global Experiences combines the companyโs existing Global Themed Entertainment licensing group, and the Studio Tours & Retail owned and operated division into a new cohesive and unified division.ย
The new team will develop and execute on global strategies that offer partners the right mix of both models, putting WBD in a position to drive growth and become a worldwide leader in the creation, development, licensing and operating of location-based entertainment inspired by Harry Potter, DC, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Game of Thrones, FRIENDS, Discovery and more.
Simon Robinson,ย Chief Operating Officer of WBD Studiosย will add leadership of WBD Global Experiences to his responsibilities. He will report to Bruce Campbell for Experiences and will continue reporting into WBDโs Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiendenfels for his studioย and contentย operations and financialย roles.
Robinson appointed two veteran leaders to his new Experiences organization who will report to him: Peter van Roden,ย Executive Vice President, Global Themed Entertainment, will continue in his role leading the licensed location-based entertainment and theme parks businesses as well as the divisionโs global business development. Meanwhile, Sarah Roots, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Studio Tours & Retail, will continue in her role leadingย WBDโs owned and operated experiences including the award-winningย Warner Bros. Studio Tour โ The Making of Harry Potter, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood and the Harry Potter flagship and other retail stores.
Sarah and her teams in London, Tokyo, and Burbank have made the companyโs studio tours must-experience destinations with industry leading visitor reviews.
In announcing the Global Experiences leadership team, Robinson said โPeter and Sarah are experts in curating and executing global location-based experiences at the very highest caliber. Our teams have an obsession for detail that we bring to each project and together, we will be able to bring partners โ and fans โ even more of what theyโve come to expect from a Warner Bros. experience.โ
Image: WBD
