Factual indie Pioneer Productions has appointed former Warner Bros Discovery exec Howard Swartz as chief executive.
The role has been vacant since previous incumbent Jonathan Hewes left Pioneer in January 2024, with creative director Thomas Viner also exiting at the end of last year.
Swartz is best known for presiding over more than 100 hours of WBD’s Shark Week programming and feature docs such as Serengeti and the Oscar-nominated January 6.
Based in London, he joins Pioneer from Banijay’s Virginia-based producer Stephen David Entertainment, where he held the role of executive vice-president of production and development for two years.
Hailing Pioneer’s “intelligent, ambitious and entertaining factual content”, Swartz said he planned to expand the company’s range of feature docs, limited series and returners, with an eye on young-skewing formats.
He said he wanted to build a slate that “honours the company’s DNA while creative space for fresh voices, new topics, and formats that can entertain and inform audiences across broadcast, streaming, digital and whatever platform might come next”.
Part of the Tinopolis group, Pioneer’s output spans science, history and natural history, with a library that includes Channel 5’s Animals After Dark and Discovery’s David Baddiel on the Silk Road, as well as drama reconstructions such as Channel 4’s Challenger: Countdown to Disaster and C4/Nat Geo co-pro The Unsinkable Titanic.
Tinopolis chief executive officer Jennifer Roberts said Swartz’s appointment “marks a new chapter in Pioneer’s story, building on a great legacy and laser-focused on where factual is heading next”.
