Global content creator, producer and distributor Endemol Shine Group today announced the appointment of James Hayr as Head of Sales within the Commercial Partnerships team.

Reporting into the Group’s Director of Commercial and Strategy, Wim Ponnet, Hayr will take on the brand relations responsibilities within Commercial Partnerships working closely with complementary divisions and specialisms both globally and within territories. His brief is to supercharge this area of the business; identifying and linking global commercial brand partners and opportunities, growing the group’s overall branded content and content marketing business, boosting monetisation opportunities, and ultimately revenues, across the group’s non-linear content.

Multi-award-winning Content Strategist Hayr joins Endemol Shine Group from AOL where as Head of Branded Content he was instrumental in driving forward their brand integration across several owned platforms including The Huffington Post and AOL’s Originals video business. His previous experience includes roles with companies such as EMAP (Bauer), Conde Nast and Microsoft MSA.

Wim Ponnet, Director of Commercial and Strategy, Endemol Shine Group said: “We are delighted to have James on board to spearhead the global brand relations growth across the business. As we look to further increase revenues across our non-linear output James’ wealth of experience in content-led advertising and multi-platform will be invaluable.”

Hayr added: “”With more marketing dollars flowing into branded content, Endemol Shine Group are brilliantly placed to helps brands in this space with their award-winning roster of production companies and digital content businesses. With such strong talent in the organisation I am genuinely excited at the prospect of what we can offer publishers, agencies and brands globally.”