FIC’s Lubbers to replace CEO at Zodiak Nederland

Roy Aalderink is departing Zodiak Nederland and will be replaced as CEO by Peter Lubbers, Fox International Channels’ Benelux programming chief.

The move continues a long period of executive changes at production and distribution giant Zodiak Media, which began when Marc-Antoine d’Halluin became CEO last year.

The Dutch arm of Zodiak Media, which is behind local versions of MasterChef and Celebrity Wife Swap, is saying goodbye to Aalderink after almost ten years.

The executive has been chief exec for the past three, overseeing its rebrand from former identity, Palm Plus.

His replacement, Lubbers, joins from FIC Benelux, where he most recently held the role of general programme director. Prior to this, he held senior roles at Dutch pubcaster AVRO and RTL, where he was programme director of RTL7.

Zodiak acquired Palm Plus in 2008 and rebranded it last year. The prodco is also behind shows such as Embarrassing Bodies, Save My Holiday and Fort Boyard.

“Zodiak Nederland is a strong brand with a long and rich programme track record with both public and commercial broadcasters,” he said. “Zodiak Nederland’s programmes have a distinct profile, and I look forward to building on this solid foundation in the years to come.”

The development comes in a long line of changes at Zodiak that began when David Frank was replaced as CEO by d’Halluin. Frank’s brother Matthew, who was CEO of Zodiak Rights, then exited and was replaced by former BBC Worldwide sales boss Steve Macallister.

Zodiak’s Russian and French arms have also welcomed new bosses in the past few weeks, while a number of other senior execs have exited the businesses.

“I am very pleased that Peter Lubbers will join Zodiak Nederland bringing with him a great production and channel expertise,” said d’Halluin. “Building on the successes of Zodiak and on the renewed focus on delivering international format hits, I am confident that Zodiak Nederland will greatly benefit of his leadership. I also want to thank Roy Aalderink for his great contribution and wish him the best in his future challenges.”