Simon Thomas will join Fox International Channels’ (FIC) executive management team in January as Executive Vice President of Global Sports and Content Sales. The appointment comes as FIC continues to expand its worldwide sports presence and ownership of premium sports rights as well as its catalogue of original factual, lifestyle and scripted content.

Thomas, a seasoned sports and media executive, spearheads the development of two of FIC’s highest growth units. The first is the international Fox Sports channel portfolio and its complementary stake in global sports rights. The second is a newly consolidated content sales and syndication arm responsible for monetizing FIC’s extensive and growing library of sports, factual, lifestyle and scripted entertainment content. Thomas will based inLondon and Zurich and will report to Hernan Lopez, President and CEO of FIC.

“Simon’s global view of sports and media markets, along with his experience on largescale rights transactions make him the ideal candidate for this combined role,” said Hernan Lopez, President and CEO of FIC. “He joins a fantastic team of executives at FIC, and will work across the group to further scale both oursports business and our syndication business.”

Thomas most recently served as CEO of TEAM Marketing, having successfully run TEAM’s TV Division for ten years. During this time he oversaw television licensing negotiations generating more than €11 billion in income for European football, in a period that saw a quadrupling of revenue for UEFA Champions League and the successful launch and re-branding of the UEFA Europa League. Prior to TEAM, Thomas was responsible for the sales, production and broadcast of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. He has also held posts at Nike Australia and several other sports-related entities.

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