New York, NY – BBC Worldwide North America announced today the appointment of Sergei Kuharsky to Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development. Based in New York, Kuharsky will report directly to Ann Sarnoff, President, BBC Worldwide North America. In this key leadership role, Kuharsky will be responsible for helping to drive growth across the company’s businesses in the U.S. and Canada, and identifying new business opportunities through partnerships and acquisition.  He will also be strategy lead in the development of key franchises – Top Gear, Doctor Who, and BBC Earth – across all businesses, which will involve working closely with joint-venture channel BBC AMERICA and other key partners.

“Sergei and I worked together at Nickelodeon to help expand Nick’s brands,” said Ann Sarnoff. “Throughout his career, Sergei has a proven track record of success in building businesses. I can’t think of a better person to help us plot BBC Worldwide North America’s strategy as we grow in the U.S. and Canada.”

BBC Worldwide North America has a diversified set of businesses in the region, including BBC Worldwide Productions (producers of hit BBC format Dancing with the Stars and the upcoming The Night Of), Adjacent Productions (Life Below Zero, Port Protection), linear and digital program sales and co-productions, home entertainment, licensing, theatrical distribution, cinema events, and BBC.com.

Kuharsky joins BBC Worldwide North America from Scripps Networks Interactive, where during his eight year tenure as General Manager for Food Network he led the brand’s expansion strategy and built SNI’s consumer products portfolio.  This included their multi-million dollar magazine joint venture with Hearst, which produced the Food Network and HGTV magazines, and Food Network’s direct to retail program in 1,100 Kohl’s department stores across the U.S. Prior to SNI, Kuharsky was EVP, Sales and Marketing at In Demand Networks where he created and launched HD, MOD, and SVOD services including Howard Stern TV, cable’s first SVOD service to acquire 100K subscribers within the first 90 days of launch.

Previously he was SVP, Brand and Franchise Marketing at MTV Network’s Nickelodeon Channel where he created the industry’s first franchise management division, driving the growth of top-rated series such as Rugrats, Blue’s Clues, and SpongeBob, resulting in multi-billion dollars in non-television revenue.