Longtime HBO communications head Quentin Schaffer is stepping down from his post next month after 39 years as a key architect of HBO’s premium TV brand.
Schaffer will exit as HBO’s executive VP of corporate communications next month, after steering HBO through one last Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills. He is the latest in a string of departures of long-serving executives at HBO. It comes five months after HBO’s new parent company, AT&T’s WarnerMedia, shook up the status quo at the company with the appointment of Bob Greenblatt as content chief overseeing HBO, Turner’s entertainment networks and the HBO Max direct to consumer platform coming next year from WarnerMedia. Greenblatt in turn recruited his own corporate communications chief in ABC alum Kevin Brockman as executive VP of global communications for WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-To-Consumer.
In a memo announcing his resignation to staffers, Schaffer reflected on the array of experiences that came with his job.
Schaffer wrote that his personal “montage of memories” included “screening of ‘Band of Brothers’ on the beaches of Normandy with the men of Easy Company” and “a visit to Nelson Mandela’s office while in Johannesburg for the Whitney Houston concert, being in Moscow right after Perestroika for a screening of ‘Stalin’ (I shouldn’t have been there as my daughter was born the same time), the barrage of calls after ‘The Sopranos’ went to black, the first-ever (theatrical) screening of a TV Show for ‘Sex and the City.’ “
For most of Schaffer’s tenure, he reported directly to Richard Plepler, HBO’s former PR chief turned chairman and CEO, who left the company in late February amid the Greenblatt shakeup.
“HBO has been an amazing place to work alongside the brightest and most creative people I’ve ever come across, particularly the communications team,” Schaffer said in a statement. “What made it special was that we always had an enviable slate of programming to work with. In looking back, I feel lucky to have had the greatest temporary job in the business. For 39 years. With Kevin (Brockman) now here, the team is in good hands and I can feel comfortable moving on.”
Brockman paid tribute to his predecessor.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety