18 When Patrick Elmendorff was growing up in Munich, Germany, he didn’t like the TV business, particularly when he was dragged to TV trade shows by his father Franz, then a sales executive with MCA-TV (now NBCUniversal) and, later, for his own Munichbased company, FJE Film, which he founded in 1981. Elmendorff is now CEO of Studio 100 Media, one of the largest entertainment groups in Europe. The elder Elmendorff died before having a chance to be proven right for his foresight about his son’s career path. But throughout his career in the international TV business, the younger Elmendorff has also been right. He was right in joining Germany’s Beta/Kirch Group in 1995 after a stint at FJE Film that started in 1993 at the age of 26. At that time, the Beta/Kirch Group was the major film-TV company in Europe. He was correct in joining Thomas Haffa, a Beta/ Kirch Group alumni, in 1999, a year after Haffa’s Ismaning, Germany-based EM.TV acquired the Beta/Kirch Group’s children’s programming, which consisted of 20,000 half hours for the equivalent of $280 million (in cash and stocks). With that acquisition EM.TV controlled 34 percent of all animated children’s programming in Germany and 10 percent Europe-wide. Elmendorff was again right when in 2007 he co-founded the Munich-based Studio 100 Media, which a year later acquired EM.TV’s library for 41 million euro (then U.S.$57.5 million) adding classic shows to its catalog, including Maya the Bee and Pippi Longstocking. Studio 100 Media’s parent company, the Schelle, Belgium-based Studio 100 was then an 11-year-old animation production company that in 2006 received a large injection of funds from Fortis Private Equity (now part of the Paribas Group) that acquired 32.56 percent of the group. Studio 100 was founded by three partners, Hans Bourlon, then 34; Gert Verhulst, then 28, and Danny Verbiest, then 51, to produce the children’s TV show Samson and Gert, and launched with a total of five employees. On the show, partner Gert Verhulst was the on-air owner of the puppet dog Samson, which was created in 1989 by puppeteer Verbiest, who lent his voice talents to the dog. Verbiest sold his shares and left the group in 2005. Before founding Studio 100, Verhulst and Bourlon were both working at Belgium’s TV station VRT, the former as a TV presenter and the latter as an in-house producer. With Elmendorff in the mix, Studio 100 Media served as Studio 100’s stepping stone into the German market and it entered into global televisionprogramsales (before that, distribution was handled in-house, but mostly in Belgium and the Netherlands). In 2013 Elmendorff cocreated and became CEO of Studio 100 Film, a film distribution division for all animated film projects from the parent company. This latest venture handled Maya The Bee –– Movie, The House of Anubis and the current movie Vic The Viking, which is expected to hit cinemas in 2017. By 2014, Studio 100 had grown into an entity with over 1,000 employees and offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Australia. Last year, the group generated revenues of 180 million euro ($205 million). Elmendorff also oversees new business development for the companies, all while serving on the board of the company’s theme parks. Recently, in addition to contributing to the financial development of new TV series and film projects, Elmendorff has begun to develop stage shows in the German-speaking region. Studio 100’s self-proclaimed goal is to “produce content which is engaging entertainment and educational for today’s children and their Exec’s Past Helps The Future of One of Europe’s Major Entertainment Groups April 2015 Company Profi le: Studio 100 (Continued on Page 20) By 2014, Studio 100 had grown into an entity with over 1,000 employees and offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Australia. Last year, the group generated revenues of 180 million euro ($205 million). Co-CEO and managing director Gert Verhulst Patrick Elmendorff, l., CEO of both Studio 100 Media and Studio 100 Film, with Hans Bourlon, co-CEO and managing director of Studio 100
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