Pioneer Productions poaches BBC’s Innovation boss

UK factual producer Pioneer has recruited Ailsa Orr from the BBC. Orr was head of the Innovations unit at UK public broadcaster the BBC and will be creative director at Pioneer.

Orr has created shows including BBC doc Pompeii – The Last Day and BBC One and Discovery show Supervolcano.

Before running the BBC’s Innovation division, where her team supported development activity at the pubcaster, she was head of programmes for BBC Northern Ireland. She has also served as an executive and series producer at BBC Factual.

She will join Pioneer, which is owned by Tinopolis, in the newly-created creative director role in November.

Stuart Carter, chairman, Pioneer Productions, said: “This new senior role is designed to help take Pioneer into a whole new era and help accelerate our diversification,” said Stuart Carter, Chairman, Pioneer Productions. “Driving our growth in the wider factual area, growing our market share and enhancing our USP is what this role is all about.”

Commenting on Orr’s departure, Pat Younge, chief creative officer at BBC Productions said: “Ailsa is an outstanding creative leader with great editorial range, intellectual depth and creative vision. She’s skilled at getting teams to deliver their very best work, and the BBC’s loss is Pioneer’s gain.”