Fox Television Group has promoted Shannon Ryan to the newly-created post of chief marketing officer, while Darren Schillace has been upped to executive vice president of marketing for Fox Broadcasting Company.
Effective immediately, Ryan will be responsible for overseeing all marketing and publicity for Fox, Twentieth Century Fox Television, and Fox 21 Television Studios. She most recently served as executive vice president of marketing and communications for the company. Schillace, who used to be senior vice president of marketing at ABC Entertainment, will manage Fox’s marketing strategy, media, social content marketing, affiliate and MVPD marketing, special operations, and brand partnerships. He will report to Ryan.
“We have had the great pleasure of working with Shannon over the past three years and she has impressed us tremendously. She is a savvy strategist and an inspired leader,” FTG chairmen and CEOs Gary Newman and Dana Walden said in a statement. “She shares our vision for FTG — support the best creators in television to create bold, original, and timeless content — and we are thrilled that she will be leading our talented group of publicity and marketing executives.”
“In today’s television universe, it’s more important than ever to create engaging, innovative, and fully-integrated campaigns that break through,” Ryan said. “Darren is a talented marketer with a proven track record, having helped launch some of television’s biggest hits, including our own studio’s ‘Modern Family,’ ‘Speechless,’ and ‘Fresh Off the Boat.’ I couldn’t be more excited to have him join the amazing Fox team, where his expertise, strategic vision, and collaborative approach will help us create even more dynamic campaigns.”
Popular on Variety
Most recently, Ryan was responsible for publicity and corporate communications, as well as creative services, talent relations, special operations, and experiential marketing across Fox. She oversaw launch campaigns for “Lethal Weapon” and “Star,” and managed outreach on “Empire,” “The Last Man on Earth,” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” among other series. On the studio side, she helped oversee PR campaigns for “This Is Us,” “American Horror Story,” and “People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Before that, she served as executive vice president of marketing and communications for Fox. While a publicist at the network, she developed launch campaigns for such hit series as “That ’70s Show,” “King of the Hill,” and “Arrested Development.” In 2006, Ryan was promoted to vice president of entertainment publicity, overseeing PR and awards campaigns for “American Idol,” ‘House,” “24,” and others. She supervised launch campaigns for Fox’s “Glee,” “New Girl,” and “The X Factor” after being promoted to senior vice president of publicity and corporate communications in 2007.
While at ABC, Schillace oversaw all marketing strategies for the network’s primetime, late-night, and daytime shows, spanning on-air promotion, off-network creative, digital marketing, creative and social media, paid media, strategic partnerships, and events. He helped influence the direction of the marketing for such shows as “black-ish,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” “Lost,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Schillace also oversaw the strategy behind ABC’s Thursday night branding, “TGIT,” and its comedy brand, “ABC Funny.”
He served as vice president of consumer marketing for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network from 2010 to 2012. As part of the network’s executive launch team, Schillace was responsible for OWN’s marketing strategy, off-air creative, on-air scheduling, and paid media.
Before that, Schillace worked at ABC as vice president of marketing strategy. During his early tenure with the network, he managed marketing strategy and research, digital strategy, paid media, and marketing partnerships for ABC’s primetime and late-night slates. He joined ABC in 2003 from Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, where he handled marketing strategy for Epcot and Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando.
