Leadership
Meet our leadership team
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Monty Sarhan
Chief Executive OfficerAs CEO of SkyShowtime, Monty Sarhan is responsible for spearheading the launch of the next great streaming service for Europe. Under Monty’s leadership, SkyShowtime brings together the best entertainment from the world’s greatest studios and storytellers, to offer new and exclusive entertainment to millions of homes across 20+ European markets.
Monty joined from Comcast Cable, where he served as Senior Vice President of Content Acquisition. Prior to that, he led MGM’s premium television service Epix as its Executive Vice President and General Manager, where he launched Epix’s direct-to-consumer streaming service across all platforms and secured full national distribution for its networks.
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Hristina Georgieva
Chief Business OfficerHristina Georgieva leads the Distribution & Partnerships function at SkyShowtime with P&L responsibility for all B2B revenue. Hristina is responsible for overseeing and leading new business development and partnerships with all distributors, platforms, device manufacturers, as well as other partners such as retailers, consumer products manufacturers and service providers.
In her previous role as Vice President of Affiliate Distribution & Commercial Development at Disney, Hristina was part of the team to launch Disney+ across EMEA, negotiating its first deals with cable, satellite, and telco partners. Hristina has spent her media career driving distribution and revenue. Prior to Disney, she held senior roles at Fox Networks Group and Discovery where she led pan-European commercial strategies, partnerships, and distribution.
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Jen McAleer
Chief Brand OfficerJen McAleer is responsible for the strategy and direction of the SkyShowtime brand through all touchpoints of customer and colleague experience in each of SkyShowtime's 20+ markets. Jen works across the organisation to bring unity and align the business around a common purpose and ambition to build one SkyShowtime brand for Europe.
Prior to joining SkyShowtime, Jen was Group Brand Director for Sky. She also spent several years at Tesco as International Customer Director and latterly Group Own Brand Director. Before joining Tesco, Jen had a long agency-side career working with brands including Virgin, adidas, Barclays, Qatar Airways, BBC and Oxfam.
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Kai Finke
Chief Content OfficerKai Finke leads the programming team and is responsible for programming strategy, overseeing the service’s top-quality pipeline of partner studio entertainment, merchandising and scheduling, and SkyShowtime’s Original programming slate and acquisitions.
Kai joins SkyShowtime from Netflix where he was Director of Content across multiple European markets. He has worked in production, international distribution, and acquisitions for more than 20 years, including for Munich-based distributor Telepool and for Vodafone. Kai has strong relationships with leading creatives, producers, distributors, and networks throughout Europe and a proven track record of bringing local-language entertainment to SkyShowtime markets as well as global audiences.
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Richard Howard
Chief Marketing OfficerRichard Howard leads teams across marketing, partnerships and digital acquisition. He is responsible for driving subscriber growth and retention across the direct to consumer business in all 20+ SkyShowtime European markets.
In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Hayu – NBCUniversal’s all-reality streaming service, Richard was instrumental in scaling the direct-to-consumer business, growing audiences and driving revenue.
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Josh Snow
Chief Product OfficerJosh Snow leads teams across product strategy and delivery, customer service, information technology and data. He is responsible for delivering great stories to our subscribers and enhancing the overall customer experience.
Prior to SkyShowtime, Josh worked as Senior Vice President of Product and Design at NBCUniversal. Josh’s multi-platform expertise spans web, app and mobile experience. He brings a deep knowledge of the Peacock platform, which is the technology foundation for SkyShowtime, along with significant product strategy and development experience from across the entertainment and sports sectors.
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Henriette Skov
Regional General Manager for Northern EuropeHenriette Skov is responsible for the SkyShowtime business in the Nordics and Netherlands. Based in Copenhagen, she leads and coordinates the regional distribution and partnerships group and oversees marketing and content across the Northern region of Europe.
In her previous role as Director of Marketing for Paramount, Henriette was a driving force in the launch of Paramount+ in the Nordics. Henriette brings a wealth of experience in the entertainment and direct-to-consumer space.
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Gabor Harsanyi
Regional General Manager for Central and Eastern EuropeGabor Harsanyi is responsible for establishing and managing the SkyShowtime business, as well as building partnerships across the CEE region. He leads and coordinates regional marketing, distribution, and partnerships.
Gabor previously served as General Manager for Central and Eastern Europe, Austria and Switzerland at Paramount and is a proven leader in the sector having also previously worked for HBO, as well as Coca Cola.
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Raquel Berzosa
Regional General Manager for IberiaRaquel Berzosa is responsible for establishing SkyShowtime in Spain and Portugal. Raquel leads the regional distribution and partnerships group and oversees marketing and content across Iberian markets.
Raquel has a long track record working in the entertainment industry and has extensive experience negotiating with partners in Spain and Portugal, including launching the Universal+ on demand service, which is currently available on three of the four main streaming platforms in Spain.
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Roberto Soto
Chief Strategy OfficerRoberto Soto leads the development and execution of SkyShowtime’s strategy; in the process, he connects all teams across the organisation ensuring a clear, consistent and visible strategy.
Previously, Roberto served as Senior Vice President and CMO for HBO Max EMEA. There, he led the marketing, PR, subscriber acquisition, CRM and growth analytics teams and spearheaded HBO Max’s successful roll-out across all of SkyShowtime's future markets, including the Nordics, the Netherlands, Iberia and Central and Eastern Europe. He has also held senior roles leading growth marketing, product, business development, content, programming, strategy and distribution at Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS), start-ups like MUBI, Fox International Channels, and Liberty Global.
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Francesca Pierce
Chief Financial OfficerFrancesca Pierce is responsible for leading the financial planning for SkyShowtime with a focus on informing and shaping new growth ideas, originating business plans and commercial finance support on related agreements.
Francesca was one of the key members of the team that helped shape the SkyShowtime business plan and brings significant experience in financial planning and commercial negotiations to the streaming service. Francesca joined from Sky where she worked in several finance leadership roles including content and channel operations, strategy and insight through to her previous role as Director of Finance, New Businesses and Markets. Prior to that she worked for Bear Stearns.
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Richard Thurston
Chief Human Resources OfficerRichard Thurston leads the HR function and is responsible for making sure SkyShowtime employees have the best experience and the right career support. Richard oversees all aspects of recruitment, reward, training and development as well as working with Monty and the leadership team to build an inclusive and inspiring culture.
In his previous role as HR Director for Sky, Richard was instrumental in shaping Sky’s Group operating model. Before joining Sky, Richard worked for the BBC as HR Director of the BBC News Group supporting teams across the globe and prior to that he spent seven years at ITV.
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John Heinemann
General CounselJohn Heinemann serves as the chief legal officer of SkyShowtime, acting as a strategic advisor to the leadership team and the Board of Directors while overseeing the entire legal function including commercial and transactional matters, compliance and regulatory matters, privacy and data protection, content licensing/production, and channel and SVOD service distribution.
Prior to joining SkyShowtime, John spent five-years at The Walt Disney Company, most recently, as Associate Principal Counsel for Nordics and MENA. During his tenure at Disney, John was part of the team that launched Disney+ internationally, negotiating multiyear agreements across Europe and MENA. Previously, John has worked at Fox Network Groups, BBC Worldwide, and Viasat Broadcasting.