Ex-Beenz boss takes top job at Pinewood

Pinewood-Shepperton has appointed a former Beenz.com executive, Nick Smith, to the newly created role of sales and marketing director.

Smith joins the film and television production company after a period as a media consultant. His last full-time job was as Nokia’s head of European sales for interactive services.

At Nokia, he worked on the launch of an interactive television service in partnership with ITV Digital, but left when the project was scrapped. Prior to that, he was managing director of the online loyalty currency specialist Beenz.com.

Smith’s responsibilities include marketing the company’s services to the American film industry. He says he will “possibly” review the company’s agency, Reading-based Allied Marketing Support.

Pinewood-Shepperton is owned by a consortium, chaired by former Channel 4 chief executive Michael Grade, which bought Pinewood Studios from Rank in 2000. In February last year, the company bought Shepperton Studios and has invested in production technology at both facilities.

The company appointed HSBC’s investment banking arm of earlier this year to examine the possibility of a flotation. No one was available to comment on whether these plans were still in progress – given the recent cancellation of other planned high-profile flotations – as Marketing Week went to press.

The next James Bond movie, Die Another Day, is in production at the studios.