Turner’s Asia Pac boss resigns

Steve Marcopoto has stepped down as president and managing director of Turner’s Asia Pacific business.

As the executive in charge of Turner’s operations in the region he has recently presided over a wide-ranging restructure of the business with a third of the workforce cut. That rejig followed a similar process in the EMEA region amid a flurry of recent changes at Turner.

At the senior executive level Marcopoto’s departure comes weeks after Turner Broadcasting CEO Phil Kent announced he is leaving the firm at the end of the year and being replaced by CFO John Martin.

Marcopoto will leave his position at the end of the year, after 15 years with the company, when his contract expires. Turner gave no indication of how it will fill the role aside from saying that “the succession will be announced in due course”.

In Asia Pac business is now divided across three regions with Siddharth Jain heading up activity in South Asia, Phil Nelson in North Asia and Sunny Saha in South East Asia Pacific.

Turner recently set up a new joint venture to run its Boomerang channel in Thailand and Marcopoto said that there were further partnership announcements in the offing, giving an indication of the company’s plans for its Asia Pac business.

Gerhard Zeiler, president Turner Broadcasting System International has overseen the company’s global restructure. He said: “Steve has guided Turner Asia Pacific through a period of rapid change. Under his exceptional leadership Turner went from broadcasting two networks in the region to 36 channels today along with a vast variety of digital and off-channel commerce activities. In an increasingly competitive environment, he has maintained our leadership position in news and kids channels, forged entry into new territories and built great partnerships.”

Marcopoto said: “Turner is poised for a great run and now is the best moment for the company to put a fresh set of hands in charge. I am very proud of the growth of our business while I’ve had the privilege of holding this role.”

Another major executive change was announced at Turner’s US business yesterday, with David Levy upped to president, TBS, with responsibility for all of the company’s US cable nets.