Tom Toumazis’ Endemol exit confirmed

The departure of Endemol chief commercial officer Tom Toumazis was confirmed this morning. Toumazis will become CEO of UK-based international publisher Mecom Group. He has been linked with a move Mecom for several weeks and will join the publisher in mid-August. His last day at Endemol is June 24.

It is not clear whether Endemol will directly replace the outgoing executive, with department heads Cathy Payne (Endemol Worldwide Distribution), Olivier Gers (Endemol Worldwide Brands) and Gregg Oldfield and Lawrence Duffield (Endemol Sport) reporting directly to CEO Ynon Kreiz directly after Toumazis’ departure.

Toumazis joined Endemol in early 2009 after a seven-year stint at Disney where he was ultimately managing director, running the studio’s distribution business in the EMEA region (and Canada). Prior to that, he was in charge of advertising at publishing group Emap.

Since joining Endemol, Toumazis has overseen sports and branding units Endemol Sport and Endemol Worldwide Brands and, following the acquisition of Southern Star, the creation of finished programme sales department under the Endemol Worldwide Distribution moniker (EWD).

Having joined from Disney, pushing scripted programming was a particular focus for Toumazis and revenues from that part of the business grew 56% between 2008 and 2010.