Plimsoll Productions, the company behind series such as Apple’s Tiny World and Disney+’s James Cameron-executive produced and Benedict Cumberbatch-narrated Super/Natural, has hired National Geographic’s Alan Eyres to run its U.S. arm.
Eyres spent the last ten years as SVP of Unscripted Production and Development for the National Geographic Global Channels and was instrumental in launching the Nat Geo tile on Disney+.
He becomes head of Plimsoll USA, reporting to founder and CEO Grant Mansfield.
It marks the first major hire after British broadcaster ITV acquired the company, best known for natural history programming, for $126M earlier this summer, and comes after Saul Goldberg, who previously headed up U.S. operations at the company left to join CAA as a UK-based agent.
Eyres has worked with Plimsoll on a number of series and docs including serving as network programming executive for Hostile Planet, Earth Live and Yellowstone Live as well as The Ascent with Alex Honnold, which is coming up for Nat Geo/Disney+.
In the new role, he will be responsible for expanding the company’s U.S. footprint and serve as a chief point of contact for all of Plimsoll’s factual US-based business.
During his time at the Disney-owned broadcaster, he has overseen a slate of more than 300 unscripted hours a year of series, formats and documentary films and his credits include Disney+’s Limitless, featuring Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith’s Welcome to Earth, The World According to Jeff Goldblum and Beyond Belief with David Blaine as well as Life Below Zero, Brain Games, Running Wild with Bear Grylls and Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller.
He was also part of the team that launched National Geographic Documentary Films, which was behind docs such as LA 92, The Cave, The Rescue and Free Solo.
“Having worked with Plimsoll since their inception, I have long been an admirer of Grant and the tremendous team he has assembled to produce incredible content across a wide array of genres. I could not be more excited to join Plimsoll and embark on this next chapter together,” said Eyres.
Grant Mansfield, founder and CEO of Plimsoll Productions, added, “Alan is a highly respected executive with a well-known reputation for shepherding groundbreaking content with A-list talent. We have enjoyed a long and successful working relationship, and know his vision for genre-defining premium aligns with Plimsoll’s expansion goals in the US.”