Sky Executive Jane Millichip, Distribution Leader and Key Architect of Sustainability Drive, to Step Down After 9 Years

Sky govt Jane Millichip, a distribution chief and a driving power behind the corporate’s sustainability drive, is leaving the corporate after virtually 10 years.

Information of the manager’s departure was revealed to employees in a memo from Sky Studios CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz on Tuesday morning. Millichip, who presently serves as chief content material officer for Sky Studios, is leaving the corporate after 9 years. She first joined the enterprise in 2013.

Millichip, a well-respected govt within the U.Okay. business, made her mark at Sky via her management of the corporate’s in-house distribution banner Sky Imaginative and prescient, which was folded into NBCUniversal Worldwide Distribution following Comcast’s acquisition of Sky in 2018.

Underneath Millichip, Sky Imaginative and prescient grew from £8 million ($10.8 million) in revenues to £250 million ($338 million) in simply six years. The chief was additionally key in rising the corporate’s investments in impartial manufacturing firms, corresponding to “Nice British Bake Off” outfit Love Productions.

Since becoming a member of Sky Studios — the brand new in-house manufacturing arm — Millichip has led on editorial actions throughout the U.Okay., Germany and Italy on reveals corresponding to “A Discovery of Witches” (Season 3), “Der Cross” (Season 2) and forthcoming in-house manufacturing “The Rising.” She’s additionally been a powerful champion and key architect of the corporate’s push into sustainable manufacturing throughout all Sky Originals, in addition to a drive to work with various expertise.

Millichip will stay on the firm till late April.

In a letter to employees seen by Selection, she described her determination to go away as “agonizing, not least as a result of I really like working on this workforce.”

“Within the 9 years I’ve been at Sky we have now developed from an organization principally recognized for its acquired content material to a centre of excellence for Originals. And we have now constructed a business mannequin which means the Sky Unique model is seen all through the world,” wrote Millichip, a former commerce journalist who moved into TV and labored as a producer and commissioning editor.

Following Millichip’s exit, Frot-Coutaz has revealed that Caroline Cooper will probably be increasing her remit as chief working officer at Sky Studios to embody the corporate’s “broader business actions” in addition to manufacturing operations and Sky Studios Elstree, which can open later this yr.

Cooper — an eight-year Sky veteran — will oversee Sky Studios enterprise affairs, the Jason Simms-led worldwide scripted workforce and content material operations.

Millichip is among the many senior executives who’ve seen energy change fingers at Sky in recent times following the Comcast takeover. Dana Robust took over from Jeremy Darroch as CEO of the corporate in January 2021, whereas Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey (a Sky veteran who was beforehand managing director of content material) retired final yr, with Frot-Coutaz coming over from YouTube in September 2021 to guide Sky Studios.

Frot-Coutaz’s inner memo to employees is under: 

Pricey all,

I’m writing to you right now to replace you on some Individuals information inside Sky Studios and to stipulate our new working mannequin throughout the Group.

After 9 sensible years at Sky, Jane Millichip has determined to step down from her position as Chief Content material Officer at Sky Studios to hunt new challenges. As you’ll all know Jane has made an enormous contribution since she joined the enterprise in 2013. Underneath Jane’s management, Sky Imaginative and prescient, Sky’s former manufacturing and distribution arm, grew from £8m revenues to £250m in six years and spearheaded Sky’s funding into impartial manufacturing firms and content material distribution. Because the formation of Sky Studios, Jane expanded her preliminary business remit to incorporate main our editorial actions throughout the UK, Germany and Italy with the groups persevering with to ship stand-out Sky Originals like A Discovery of Witches S3, Der Cross S2 and our forthcoming in-house manufacturing The Rising, all whereas managing the continued challenges of COVID all through manufacturing. Along with this Jane has been a powerful champion and key architect of Sky’s push into sustainable manufacturing throughout all our Sky Originals in addition to our continued drive to draw and elevate various expertise.

I want to thank Jane for every part she has contributed to Sky and the assist she has offered me in my first few months at Sky Studios. I’m happy that she’s going to stay with the enterprise till the top of April and we sit up for a correct in-person send-off then.

With Jane’s departure Gabriel Silver, Preethi Mavahalli, Jon Mountague, Nils Hartmann and Rebecca Segal will report on to me.

Having been in position for 5 months, I’ve additionally taken the chance to evaluate how we’re organised and the way we function. With rapid impact, we’re setting up plenty of modifications to allow us to higher ship on our important ambition in authentic content material.

I’m delighted to announce that Caroline Cooper will probably be increasing her remit as Chief Working Officer, Sky Studios to embody our broader business actions in addition to our manufacturing operations, plus Sky Studios Elstree. With rapid impact Sky Studios Enterprise Affairs, led by Julian Dexter, our Worldwide Scripted workforce, led by Jason Simms, our Content material Operations, led by Bee Devine, and Director of Company Improvement, Rob Siegel will all report back to Caroline, who additionally retains general accountability for Sky Studios Elstree. Caroline has been with Sky for eight years, working throughout a variety of economic, technique and operational roles and has the right mixture of expertise, expertise, and management functionality to ship the following section of economic and operational progress to Sky Studios.

Given the interdependencies of our operations, business and enterprise affairs groups, bringing them collectively below a single management construction will enable us to maneuver faster, streamline determination making and foster better collaboration.

Over the previous 5 months, I’ve witnessed the stressed ardour this firm has to ship the most effective content material and merchandise to our clients throughout Europe. With this new working mannequin in place for Sky Studios, I imagine we’re effectively organised to ship on our 2030 ambition and produce our clients much more Sky Unique content material price paying for.

Cécile