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FRAPA, the Format Recognition and Protection Association, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has announced that Helen Greatorex, the acquisitions head at the world’s biggest distributor of formats, Banijay Entertainment, and globally respected format expert Nathalie Wogue, have joined its advisory board. These latest additions to the board bring the total number of new appointments this year to five. Wogue and Greatorex take their place alongside Blink49’s Adam Steinman, Shimmer Media’s Pascal Dalton and Formatbiz’s Maria Chiara Duranti, who joined FRAPA’s mission last April.

FRAPA chairman Phil Gurin, president and CEO of TGC Global Entertainment/The Gurin Company said: “FRAPA is reshaping itself for the future, as is demonstrated by the addition of these respected formats executives to our refreshed and revitalised board. Our intention is to continue to evolve with the times, fine-tuning our mission, services and purpose to ensure we offer our members the support they need to navigate an increasingly complex formats marketplace. With Helen and Nathalie, and their unrivalled reputations and insights, we take a further step towards achieving our new goals in this, our 25th Anniversary year.”

Helen Greatorex, head of format acquisitions at Banijay Entertainment, specialises in identifying, developing and acquiring unscripted titles with global potential. Her recent acquisitions include unique craft-based competition series, Game of Wool (Hello Halo, part of STV Studios), and hit Belgium game show 99 to Beat, from Primitives, which launched successfully with Banijay Entertainment labels in the UK and Italy, and has been commissioned by FOX in the US. She previously served as senior global development producer, supporting the largest European studio’s unscripted pipeline across key territories, identifying strategic opportunities to expand its IP. Earlier in her tenure, she held the format manager role, overseeing superbrands like Big Brother, Hunted and Temptation Island. Prior to this, Greatorex spent six years as group acquisitions manager for Endemol Shine. She began her career at international media consultancy K7 Media, where she spent almost a decade building her content intelligence and analysis expertise, rising to become director of operations.

Wogue is a content creator, developer and strategist, whose experience also spans format acquisitions, sales and partnerships. Most recently senior vice-president of global formats at Fox Entertainment Global, her resume includes management positions at Fremantle France, IMG Entertainment and Endemol France. She also served as president of the joint venture between Endemol and Mark Burnett Productions. Held in high esteem across the formats industry, Wogue has acted as a consultant for many of the world’s leading format players, including Fox Studios, ABC Studios, Canal+ and RTL. In addition, she oversaw RX’s MIPFormats programme for many years, helping to transform it into the premier event for unscripted entertainment. She is also a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and has served on the jury of the Emmy Awards, the Rose d’Or Awards and C21 International Format Awards.

Wogue said: Frapa's mission, to help develop a marketplace protecting creativity, is not only noble: it's just the best way to guarantee a healthy and solid future for our format industry. I'm thrilled to contribute to its actions, which are impactful to all players, whether indie producers or big media corporations.’