Isaacs exits Kudos, reunites with Featherstone

Dan Isaacs (below left) is leaving his post as co-CEO of Endemol Shine Group-owned Kudos to reunite with former production partner Jane Featherstone, who recently revealed her new indie.

Isaacs’ co-chief executive Diederick Santer (below right) will now lead Kudos as its sole CEO, with Warner Bros Television Production UK group commercial and business affairs director Martin Haines rejoining Kudos to support him as COO.

Isaacs has held a variety of posts at Broadchurch producer Kudos, including CEO, COO, managing director and commercial director. He joined the firm in 2003 and counts shows such as Spooks, The Tunnel and Humans on his CV.

At Sister, he will work alongside CEO Featherstone, who left the Endemol Shine prodco, and her role as co-chairman of Shine UK, last January as Endemol and Shine merged together.

Isaacs had been running Kudos with Santer following Featherstone’s departure. During this time, Lovely Day, the drama producer behind Grantchester that Santer formed in 2010 had been assimilated into Kudos.

Isaacs’ departure comes as a pair of former Endemol Shine managers, David Flynn and Lucas Church, form their own indie, Youngest Media.

Santer is a former Eastenders executive producer, and also produced one-offs My First Brassiere, The Daltons and Kitten Chic while at Lovely Day.

Kudos was recently commissioned to create a new BBC One epic, Troy: Fall of a City.

The firm’s new COO, Haines, worked at Kudos between 2010 and 2013 as commercial and business affairs director before moving WBTVUK, which houses producers such as Twenty Twenty, Wall to Wall and Ricochet.

He takes up his new post in the summer.