Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, announced Thursday a new global structure for the company’s worldwide studio tours, retail destinations, touring exhibitions and all location-based experiences. The change will bring together “the existing licensed entertainment and owned and operated teams into a single worldwide division,” according to the official release.
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences will be charged with strategically expanding the company’s experiences and pursuing new businesses that capitalize on the company’s world-class intellectual property like those with Universal Destinations & Experiences, which handles the lucrative Wizarding World of Harry Potter rides, shows and attractions; and Miral, and its Warner Bros. Studio Tours in London, Hollywood and Tokyo.
“WBD has an incredible mix of location-based experiences for fans around the world, from theme parks and tours to exhibits, retail and more,” Campbell noted. “Bringing 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.”
WBD Global Experiences combines the company’s existing Global Themed Entertainment licensing group and the Studio Tours & Retail owned and operated division into a new cohesive and unified division. 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 franchises like Harry Potter, DC, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, “Game of Thrones,” “Friends” and more.
Simon Robinson, chief operating officer of WBD Studios will add leadership of WBD Global Experiences to his responsibilities. He will report to Campbell for Experiences and will continue reporting into WBD’s chief financial officer Gunnar Wiendenfels for his studio and content operations and financial roles.
Robinson appointed two veteran leaders to his new Experiences organization who will report to him: Peter van Roden and Sarah Roots.
Van Roden serves as executive vice president of Global Themed Entertainment and will continue in his role leading the licensed location-based entertainment and theme park businesses. His team will continue to manage the partnership between WBD and Universal Destinations & Experiences with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter locations (he could be seen in last week’s announcement about Epic Universe’s Harry Potter experiences). He will also oversee the Miral relationship for Warner Bros. World Dubai and The WB Abu Dhabi, plus other licensed exhibitions.
Roots, executive vice president of Worldwide Studio Tours & Retail, will continue in her role leading WBD’s owned and operated experiences. This includes Warner Bros. Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter outside of London, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood (which was recently revamped) and the Harry Potter flagship store in New York.
In announcing the Global Experiences leadership team, Robinson said in an official statement, “Peter 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 – and fans – even more of what they’ve come to expect from a Warner Bros. experience.”
