Meredith Gertler & Lisa Holme To Exit, Vanessa Brookman Promoted In Latest Warner Bros. Discovery Shakeup

Peter White
·5 min read

EXCLUSIVE: There’s more change in the executive ranks at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Meredith Gertler and Lisa Holme have decided to leave the company and, separately, Vanessa Brookman has been promoted.

More from Deadline

Gertler, who is EVP of Global Content Strategy, Planning and Analysis, has been with the company for nearly 20 years, starting in marketing at HBO before becoming SVP, Program Strategy and Planning for the premium cable network. She then moved up to become EVP, Content Strategy and Planning in 2018 and EVP, Global Streaming Content Strategy last year.

In her most recent role, she was responsible for shaping the company’s global streaming content portfolio and long-term content investment strategy as well as overseeing the teams responsible for content and promotion scheduling across HBO, Max and Discovery+.

In an internal memo, seen by Deadline, JB Perrette, who is CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, said that Gertler “helped carry the iconic brand through major transitional distribution moments as it expanded from linear to home video to on-demand to streaming” and said that she was “pivotal” in launches of Max.

“Meredith has been an incredible teammate and friend to many over her illustrious tenure, and she will be greatly missed,” he said.

Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content, added, “Meredith and I joined HBO around the same time, and she has been a great friend and partner for those 20 years. I, along with the entire organization, have benefitted so much from her skills and judgment. Those that have learned from her are better professionals for it and the company cannot thank her enough for all she has contributed. She’ll be missed by many but we are excited to see what the future holds for her.”

Lisa Holme joined Discovery in 2020 from Hulu, where she was VP, Content Acquisition. She was originally Group SVP, Head of Content and Commercial Strategy for streaming at the factual cable group before moving into her new WBD role in May 2022. She was involved in the launch of Discovery+ and has overseen global content strategy, merchandising, and podcasts for WBD Streaming.

“I cannot thank Lisa enough for her great leadership, insights and analysis, and tremendous impact on our team and business,” wrote Perrette. “Lisa has been a great partner and delivered terrific results, and we wish her the very best in her next endeavor.”

Separately, Vanessa Brookman, who was the Head of Kids, EMEA, has been promoted to GM, Kids, Global Streaming and International Networks. The London-based exec has been with the company for eight years, joining from Viacom. She will continue to report to President of International Gerhard Zeiler with a dotted line into Perrette and will oversee kids original content strategy and develop global kids content franchises, as well as greenlighting and acquiring kids content. Pablo Zuccarino, GM, Kids, Warner Bros. Discovery LatAm and Chris Ho, who oversees the kids business in APAC will report to Brookman, who will work closely with Michael Ouweleen and the team from U.S. Networks.

“Vanessa is a recognized industry leader with a proven track record in broadcast and PayTV. She has built collaborative creative teams with fantastic results, which is what we need in this challenging environment,” said Perrette. “We need to have more coordinated and strategic global leadership around our Kids content, networks and brands for Streaming and Networks, as well as with other parts of WBD including Consumer Products and Theatrical.”

As part of Gertler and Holme’s departures, the company is to “rethink” its content strategy structure and “re-group” the current teams.

Content merchandising and scheduling will fold under Global Chief Marketing Officer, Direct-to-Consumer, Warner Bros. Discovery Pato Spagnoletto and become part of the Marketing team.

Content Strategy, Planning and EMEA Acquisitions will become part of Chief Financial & Strategy Officer, Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming Josh Walker’s global strategy responsibilities.

FAST channels and Podcasts will now be led by Michael Bishara, Group Senior Vice President & General Manager of its Direct to Consumer and Digital Studios Group

Global programming and scheduling for HBO linear and Max will now come under Jennie Morris, merchandising will be led by Megan Kew and content team operations under Tatiana Olsak will move to Spagnoletto.

Content strategy, led by Bryan Rozycki and Ale Ortiz, and content planning led by Jason Butler will move under Walker in his streaming role. EMEA Acquisitions, led by Ragnhild Thorbech, will also move to report to Walker. FAST scheduling and strategy under Matt Butler will move under Bishara.

The changes will go into effect immediately; Gertler will leave after a transition period and Holme will leave by the end of the year.

“As we’ve talked about many times, the one constant in our business and industry these days is change… and we have to continue to embrace it globally and use it as a forcing function to revisit how we do things and constantly try and find ways to improve,” Perrette said. “While the media landscape around us is more in flux than ever, our teams, our processes, our rigor, our products are better than ever… and our ambition and belief that we can be one of the top global streamers is stronger than ever.”

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.