Media CFO with Tobias Jaeger

We sat down with Lorraine Ruckstuhl, Head of TMT at Barclays in London to talk about her bank’s renewed and increased SVOD production finance fund, common investment banking misunderstandings, Barclay’s media banking on a project and corporate level, and her way to the top as a female banker. Lorraine started her career in banking more than twenty years ago and joined Barclays in 2005. Lorraine and her specialized media team are working with clients in television and film production, broadcasting and publishing as well as live and recorded music, covering their clients’ corporate finance as we as project finance needs. Recently, her team made headlines again by renewing their 100m pound UK SVOD fund and upping it to 200m pounds.

We sat down with John Gleeson, Partner and Head of Entertainment at Saffery Champness in Dublin, Ireland to talk about Ireland’s growing role in international film and television production and the opportunities for international as well as domestic producers as a result of a new global content arms race. John started his career in tax, more than 25 years ago, and has become one of the leading Irish tax advisors in media and entertainment, specializing in tax structuring, production incentives, and the famous Section 481 film and television tax credit. John has worked in companies ranging from boutique to med science, to Big 4 firms, and in 2014, he joined Grant Thornton Ireland to build and grow their local and global media and entertainment practice. John and his team built a stellar reputation over the next five years, so, the whole team was ultimately acquired by Saffery Champness in April 2019.

We sat down with former Brave Bison CEO Claire Hungate to talk to her about her start in the television industry by working in a pubcaster in-house legal team and subsequently rising through the ranks in business affairs and, later, company leadership at several production companies. Claire was instrumental in making a studio-backed management buy-out of a listed production company a reality and after leading the newly private company for some time, Claire became the CEO of AIM-listed social content studio Brave Bison. Claire started her career more than 20 years ago as a barrister in BBC’s in-house legal department. Since then she has been in the entertainment industry in various legal and business affairs roles in production companies like Princess Productions, Wall to Wall media and subsequently as Chief Operating Officer at AIM-listed shared media group. In that role, Claire was instrumental in taking the company private in a management buy-out backed by Warner Bros. and she became the CEO once the MBO was completed. Claire just recently completed another milestone in her career as CEO of AIM-listed Brave Bison and is ready to take on the next challenge.

We sat down with Saffery Champness partner Nigel Burke to talk to him about how he got started as an accountant in Ireland, learned the entertainment business first as an accountant specialized in music and tours and a subsequently moved to film and television to become one of the UK’s leading tax experts for media & entertainment. Nigel started his career in accounting nearly 30 years ago in Ireland and worked for firms like Godfrey Allan and RSM Tenon. Today he leads Saffery Champness’ financial, accounting, audit, and taxation advice for media and entertainment clients, ranging from independent production companies to major studios. Over the last three decades, Nigel has built an expertise and network that makes him one of the leading advisors on tax structured film and TV finance and tax credits in the UK, as well as all aspects of corporate finance needs of media and entertainment clients. He’s a frequent lecturer and speaker on all these subjects and continues to be a trusted partner of finance managers and CFOs on both sides of the Atlantic.

We sat down with Off The Fence founder Ellen Windemuth to talk about factual television, her company’s dominance in the space, hiring the best people, and ultimately selling the firm she spent more than 20 years building. Ellen Windemuth started her career nearly 30 years ago in sales of factual television. After working for companies like Atlantis and Fremantle she founded Off The Fence in 1994. Since then she has built the company into the omnipresent global leader that it is today. With a catalog of several thousands of hours of high-quality factual programming, Ellen and her team have, of course, made themselves an attractive target for acquisition and while she resisted the many offers she had gotten over the years she finally struck a deal with ZDF Enterprises in early 2019. Ellen continues to run the company to date and has set her sights on the next frontier already.

the media and entertainment industry is a reputation and expertise he has built over the last 30 years. Sky literally wrote the handbook on tax in media & entertainment as his landmark Treatise is used as a training book by the IRS for their entertainment group. Sky got his law degrees from UCLA and beside his legal practice Sky is a successful author with his landmark book suitably entitled “The Biz”. He is a frequent lecturer, contributor, and speaker as well as a fixture on all major top attorney lists and rankings from Chambers, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Super Lawyers. Sky is appreciated and respected for his direct, to the point style as well as a broad legal knowledge base which helped him build a reputation for efficient agreements and handling all aspects of the corporate lifecycle of the entities and organizations he represents.

We sat down with veteran entertainment CFO Roland Wieshofer, for a double episode special. Roland started his career as supervising accountant and built a deep finance and accounting expertise in film and digital. Roland was instrumental in modelling and building one of the first streaming ventures as well as the financial management of some of the most successful film production companies. Roland Wieshofer has built his career in finance and accounting over the last three decades, serving in increasingly significant positions in industries such as construction, automotive, and manufacturing until he transitioned into the media and entertainment industry more than 15 years ago. When relocating to Los Angeles, he started a deep dive into the entertainment industry where he served as VP Finance, Chief Accounting Officer, and Chief Financial Officer at companies like CinemaNow, Exclusive Media, Media Rights Capital and, until recently, Blumhouse Productions.

We sat down with veteran entertainment CFO Roland Wieshofer, for a double episode special. Roland started his career as supervising accountant and built a deep finance and accounting expertise in film and digital. Roland was instrumental in modelling and building one of the first streaming ventures as well as the financial management of some of the most successful film production companies. Roland Wieshofer has built his career in finance and accounting over the last three decades, serving in increasingly significant positions in industries such as construction, automotive, and manufacturing until he transitioned into the media and entertainment industry more than 15 years ago. When relocating to Los Angeles, he started a deep dive into the entertainment industry where he served as VP Finance, Chief Accounting Officer, and Chief Financial Officer at companies like CinemaNow, Exclusive Media, Media Rights Capital and, until recently, Blumhouse Productions.

We sat down with Marie-Josée Corbeil of National Bank of Canada, or rather Banque National du Canada to talk about how she started her career as an attorney and representing talent and productions. She became a pioneer in Canadian entertainment law before transitioning to producer and ultimately banker. Marie-Josée joined a law firm after getting her law degree and specialized in entertainment law before pursuing her passion for production and joining a production outfit as Head of Legal and Business Affairs. Today Marie-Josée works with entertainment clients in Canada and around the world and is instrumental in making some of the most prolific projects and co-productions a reality.

We sat down with Manatt partner Lindsay Conner, who has always been a bridge between capital, studios, and producers. Lindsay was instrumental in brokering, negotiating, and closing some of the most prolific US-China film deals in recent history as well as the first series deals on Netflix. Lindsay Conner is a partner of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where he is also co-chair of the firm’s media, entertainment, and digital practice. He studied at UCLA, Occidental College, and Harvard and since he got started more than 25 years ago Lindsay is a regular on all top attorney lists and rankings including the legal 500, chambers, best lawyers, and Variety. Besides his work in every day media transactions for production companies and studios, Lindsay negotiated one the largest US-China slate deals ever to the tune of a half a billion dollars.

We sat down with Volterra Group partner Guirec van Slingelandt to talk about getting started as a talent agent, making the shift to media entrepreneur and how to stay effective and efficient building five companies with two partners. Guirec van Slingelandt is a partner in Amsterdam based Volterra Group. Guirec started his career as talent agent and over the years, together with his business partners Daniel Koefoed and Anne-Paul Houwen, built a group of media companies ranging from talent agency Montecatini, film packaging firm European Film Company, production company Pellicola, film finance company Global Film Partners, as well as musical financing and production company.

We sat down with Rushlake Media founder Philipp Hoffman to talk about the new rules of VOD, the future of film distribution, and release windowing. Philipp Hoffmann is the Founder and CEO of Cologne based Rushlake Media, a specialized distributor and film sales company that has recently branched out into Video on Demand by creating its own platform. Philipp started his career 15 years ago in film sales and worked his way up through brokering distribution deals. Besides becoming a specialized distributor, Philipp and his team have launched a new VOD platform in cooperation with exhibitors to bring people back to movie theaters.

We sat down with Fintage House co-CEO Robbert Aarts to talk about Fintage House’s role in the global film, television, and music industry, how he got started, and his winning philosophy as an entrepreneur in the media & entertainment industry. Robert is Co-CEO of Fintage House, one of the largest collection account management firms in the world. Robbert worked as a lawyer, and later as banker at ABN Amro MeesPierson. He joined his now co-CEO Niels Teves 20 years ago and helped build the company into the global leader it is today.