Shinfield Studios’ joint Managing Directors Nick Smith and Ian Johnson are to retire from their positions at the end of the year.
The daily operations of Shinfield Studios will be led by Dean Horne, Vice President of Global Studio Operations, and Charlene St Aubyn, Financial Controller. Both have been part of the studios’ team since the early phases of construction.
Smith and Johnson have played a key role in creating the UK’s largest new film and television studio which has 18 sound stages and supporting facilities and is situated close to Reading in Berkshire.
They oversaw negotiations to acquire the 1,000,000ft2 site, the facilities masterplan design, securing planning permission and its construction.
Shinfield has so far hosted productions including Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte, Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, feature film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and an upcoming adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree.
In a statement, Shinfield said that having built the management and operations team responsible for the day-to-day running of the site and attracting major productions from clients such as Disney, Sony and Netflix, Smith and Johnson have decided this is the right time to hand over to the established Shinfield Studios operations team.
Peter Rumbold, CEO of Shinfield-parent company Shadowbox Studios, said: “I would like to thank both Nick and Ian for all of their efforts in helping to create a world class film and television studio in Shinfield. They’ve paved the way for our best-in-class operations team, led by Dean Horne, and secured an exceptional pipeline of productions into 2025 and beyond.”
You are not signed in
Only registered users can comment on this article.
BBC to cut 2,000 jobs: "Put simply, the gap between our costs and our income is growing"
In an internal, all-staff call held today, Rhodri Talfan Davies, Interim Director General for the BBC, revealed that the organisation is planning to cut between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs.
AJA to acquire video encoding company Comprimato
AJA Video Systems has agreed to acquire Comprimato, a live video encoding and processing software provider for virtualised and cloud productions and broadcasts.
Spain’s LaLiga teams with Fastly to target streaming piracy
LaLiga is collaborating with San Francisco-based edge cloud platform provider Fastly to develop technical solutions to address illegal streaming of live sports, with a special focus on the Spanish league’s football matches.
Women's elite sports revenues to reach $3bn in 2026
Global revenues in women’s elite sports will reach at least $3bn (£2.2bn) for the first time in 2026, according to new research by consultancy Deloitte.
SVOD market entering a ‘more disciplined phase’ – report
Global SVOD subscriptions have reached 2.2 billion worldwide and are on track to achieve 2.6 billion by 2030, according to Futuresource Consulting.
