Luis Fernández, President of Entertainment and Univision Studios is no longer with the company. He took over the role in December 2009 when Univision decided to form a studio division to produce telenovelas in the U.S. in order to be less dependent on Televisa for its programming.
Alberto Ciurana, Univision Networks President of Programming and Content, told staff about Fernández’s departure and some management changes yesterday via an internal memo.
Francisco Suárez, SVP for Special Events, and Vanessa Pombo, VP for Univision Studios, will now report directly to Ciurana.
Suárez has been with Univision since 1995, overseeing special events including Latin GRAMMYs, Premio Lo Nuestro and Premios Juventud.
Since Pombo joined Univision in 1998, she has been Director of Univision Studios and Director of Production for Galavisión.
Univision’s new structure is streamlining management. Since César Conde quit Univision to join NBCU last month, all managers report directly to CEO Randy Falco. Conde’s position has been eliminated.
No word yet on where Fernández will go next.
Prior to Univision, Fernández served was Executive President of Corporación Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) and its Board of Directors. He was previously Managing Director of production company Promofilm U.S. Between 2000 and 2005, he was the General Manager of Plural Entertainment, Grupo Prisa’s TV and film production arm in the United States. While at Plural Entertainment, he was Executive Producer for “Al Filo de la Ley,” the first fiction series to air on Univision in primetime in 2005. He also was the Executive Producer of several feature films, including “Un Día Sin Mexicanos,” co-produced with Televisa.
Before his television career, Fernández worked in the radio industry for nearly 19 years, having worked as director of the news department and national news chief for Cadena SER and news chief for Radio EL PAIS.