Andrew Newman - Chief Executive

Andrew Newman started out in television as a runner on The Big Breakfast before going on to work on some landmark entertainment and comedy shows including The Word and Brass Eye.

After a stint at the BBC, he developed The Eleven O’Clock Show and devised the Ali G strand with Sacha Baron Cohen. In 1998 he became Commissioning Editor for Entertainment at Channel 4, overseeing programmes including TFI Friday, Da Ali G Show and The Adam and Joe Show. He was made E4’s Head of Programmes for its launch in 2001 and commissioned shows including Banzai and Big Brother’s Little Brother and put live streaming on television for the first time. After a stint as controller at Five, he returned to Channel4 as Head of Comedy & Entertainment, commissioning shows including The Friday Night Project, 8/10 Cats, Bo Selecta, Peep Show, The IT Crowd, Fonejacker, The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, Derren Brown, Star Stories, Charlie Brooker’s You Have Been Watching, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Dead Set and The Inbetweeners and occasionally took time out to write on the Borat and Bruno movies.

He joined Objective as Chief Creative Officer in late 2009 and became Chief Executive in January 2011. He also sits on the Edinburgh television festival executive committee and the board of trustees of BAFTA where he is the deputy chairman of the television committee.

Paul Sandler - Managing Director

Paul Sandler joined Objective Productions as Managing Director in January 2005. He was previously Production Director at Planet 24 where he was a member of the core team behind The Big Breakfast and Survivor. He has run TV, animation and radio production companies and worked extensively as a consultant on TV production, international formats and business growth.

Michael Vine - Joint Managing Director

Michael Vine is a co-founder of Objective Productions which he set up with Andrew O’Connor in 1996.  Michael also heads up Objective Talent Management and Michael Vine Associates.

Stuart Duthie - Finance Director

Stuart Duthie trained at a City based chartered accountancy practice. His last 5 years were spent specialising in the media sector. During this time he led teams providing consultancy services to companies operating in the television production, distribution markets. In 1992, following one such project, he was asked to join TEAM plc (later to become Zenith Plc) where he spent 10 years as Group Financial Director sitting on the boards of a number of the Group’s investments, including Tiger Aspect Productions Ltd, Primetime Plc, Zenith North Ltd and Ant and Dec Productions Ltd. In 2002 Stuart began a brief break from the sector, co-founding and serving as Managing Director of an Employment Law and HR Consultancy before being tempted back into television in 2006 by Objective Productions. As Objective’s FD, Stuart looks after the financial and commercial areas of the business.

Debi Roach - Head of Production

Debi Roach joined Objective Productions as Head of Production in 2005.  She started her 15-year television career with the Walt Disney Company then moved on to The Big Breakfast at Planet 24 for 3 years, including supervising production on the show’s marathon 12-hour Millennium Show.  After production managing Survivor in the Panamanian jungle for ITV, her career progressed through a stint in children’s television, freelancing on high-end entertainment shows including BAFTA TV Awards and several months in China managing production on Miss World.  Debi supervises all production at Objective with her team of Production Executives. 

Greg Allon – Head of Legal and Business Affairs

Greg Allon oversees Objective Productions’ legal and business affairs activities, and the management of the company’s rights.  He joined Objective in 2008, having previously worked as Head of Legal and Business Affairs at Princess Productions, and as Business Affairs Manager at Endemol.  He has also worked as a strategy planner at one of London’s leading creative advertising agencies.

Phil Clarke – Head of Comedy and Comedy Entertainment

Phil Clarke joined Objective Productions as Head of Comedy, setting up the comedy  department  in spring 2003, after producing the first series of Peep Show in 2002.  The department has since made numerous award-winning series for Channel 4 and the BBC. Phil is Executive Producer for all Objective’s scripted comedy, including Peep Show and Pete Versus Life. Previously, Phil was Editor of Comedy for Talkback Productions, overseeing as Executive Producer, much of the company’s comedy output. He also  produced numerous comedy shows for Talkback including Big Train and the Brass Eye Special.

Jenny Hay – Production Executive, Comedy

Jenny Hay joined Objective Productions 5 years ago as Production Executive in the comedy department, and has worked on some of Objective’s biggest comedy shows including: Peep Show, Star Stories, Pete Versus Life, Kevin Bishop Show, Reggie Perrin and Meet The Parents. Prior to this Jenny worked at Ealing Studios and Talkback Thames as Head of Production on many comedy series such as Smack the Pony,  QI, Mr Bean, Harry Enfield and Chums and Vic Reeves Big Night Out. 

Ruth Emerson - Production Executive, Entertainment

Ruth Emerson is Production Executive for Entertainment and oversees the production of programmes such as Derren Brown, John Bishop’s Britain and Gastronuts.  Prior to joining Objective Productions, Ruth worked as a Programme Finance Manager at Channel 4, was Head of Production for T4 & At It Productions and production managed a wide range of programmes including Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, Armstrong  & Miller and Challenge Anneka.

He originally started out at IWC and unleashed Kirsty and Phil to the world, producing the pilot and first ever series of Location, Location, Location.  He has also produced Deals and Wheels and The Italian Kitchen for C4.