Objective poaches Syco exec in COO hire

UK-based Objective Media Group has hired a COO from Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment.

Matthew Angel will take up the post in October, taking the lead in legal and business affairs, finance and commercial activities.

At Syco, he was global head of legal business affairs, and recently renegotiated the contract to keep The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent on ITV until 2019.

This comes after Objective, which sits within the All3Media Group, restructured its creative team under CEO Layla Smith, and the creation of various prodcos within the group.

Those moves came after the exits of Andrew Newman, who set up a production company with comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen, and Andrew O’Connor, Paul Sandler, Matt Crook and Adam Adler, who launched the ITV Studios-housed Cats on a Roof Media.

Angel is a former All3 employee, having worked as controller of legal and business affairs for the parent group. Prior to that he spent ten years at ITV, latterly heading up the legal and business affairs non-scripted team for ITV Studios.

“It was always going to take a lot for me to leave Syco, where I have had four amazing years, but I simply couldn’t resist this new challenge,” he said. “It’s an incredibly exciting time for OMG and I am thrilled to be joining the company.”

“Matt has a wealth of experience and has consistently expanded the reach of all the companies he has worked with,” said OMG chief Smith. “He has a passion for building businesses, and working with our incredibly exciting scripted, entertainment and fact-ent labels will make OMG bigger and better.”