Federation hires former Zodiak, Lagardère exec

Paris-based Federation Entertainment has recruited Benoît Lacombe as COO.

The former Lagardère and Zodiak France (now Banijay France) exec will take the newly-created post at production and distribution group Federation.

He will run financial, legal and corporate affairs across all programme making and sales activities, working closely with Pascal Breton, president, and Lionel Uzan, managing director.

The new recruit joins from Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the film division of the videogame publisher. Before that he was financial director, Zodiak France and in the same role at the TV division of Lagardère.

Federation makes and/or sells drama series including Netflix show Marseille and Canal+’s The Bureau. It also has a kids division, run by David Michel.

The company has also been staffing up. In November, it brought on Leyla Formoso to head up drama sales efforts in Latin America.