Cécile Frot-Coutaz

Cécile Frot-Coutaz is the Chief Executive Officer of Sky Studios, Sky’s Europe-wide development, production and commissioning arm for Sky Original comedy and drama. In addition to this Cécile has responsibility for Sky Studios’ factual output as well as its global portfolio of production companies which includes Blast! Films, Jupiter Entertainment, True North and Love Productions, creator of the Great British Bake Off. She also oversees Sky Studios Elstree, the new, state-of-the-art film and TV studios that will house 13 sound stages and is set to be the world’s most sustainable film and TV studio when it opens in early 2022.

She started her career in strategy consulting at Mercer Management Consulting, in London, where she stayed for four years. In 1994, after obtaining her MBA, she joined the Pearson group headquarters in London. She was subsequently named Corporate Strategy Executive for Pearson TV, where she spearheaded the acquisition and integration of All American Fremantle into the Pearson Television group.

In 2001, she relocated to Burbank as the US commercial lead for the renamed FremantleMedia Group and was responsible for delivering some of the production company’s biggest shows including American Idol and America’s Got Talent. She held several executive roles and positions within the group, eventually ending as Chief Executive Officer in 2012. There she led a restructuring of the business and the strategy maintaining Fremantle’s position as one of the world’s leading content producers, while expanding its capability to enable it to compete in the world of high end drama, with shows like Deutschland 83, American Gods and The Young Pope. She joined YouTube in October 2018 as Head of EMEA, responsible for all aspects of the business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including forging partnerships with and supporting YouTube’s growing community of content creators. She is a graduate of ESSEC (B.A., 1988) and of INSEAD (M.B.A., 1994).