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Leopard hires Austin as creative chief
Leopard Films has appointed Todd Austin to the new position of chief creative officer as it staffs up to develop new formats and returning series.
Austin, a former editor of BBC1 docs strand One Life, will join Leopard on 8 November, taking responsibility for all creative output. He will immediately begin hunting for two more dedicated staff to form a new creative team.
Austin was a commissioning editor at the BBC for six years before joining indie Prospect Pictures as its creative director in 2007. He has also exec produced shows including Nap Attack, Nine Days That Shook Britain and Little Britain's Big Swim.
Leopard chief executive James Burstall said the appointment underlined the indie's commitment to aggressively push its factual and factual entertainment output both in the UK and for international distribution.
"Post-recession, it's important for companies to take stock and look at the best ways to grow. One way is to create content in the UK where we own the intellectual property and then work on exploiting that globally," said Burstall.
"Todd is a very talented programme maker with great ideas and terrific relationships around the industry."
Burstall added that he was keen to ramp up the amount of consumer current affairs Leopard produces, building on the success of BBC1 daytime series Filthy Rotten Scoundrels and Missing Live, plus peaktime doc The Day The Immigrants Left, fronted by Evan Davis.