08/11/2002

Stewart Till is to leave his troubled company, Signpost Films, to become Chairman and CEO (chief executive officer) of United International Picture (UIP).
The announcement made today by Rob Friedman, Paramount’s COO (chief operating officer), and Universal Pictures’ vice-chairman, Marc Schmuger, ends weeks of speculation about who would succeed the outgoing head of UIP, Paul Oneile. The London-based Oneile was in charge of running the international distribution arm of Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures since 1996.
In a joint statement Friedman and Schmuger praised Oneile’s past work, thanking him for “leading UIP through a period of significant achievement over the past six years... culminating in last year’s record $1.9bn (Euros 29bn)... and is destined for another record year in 2003”.
For Stewart Till, who will take up his new position next month, this is a return to corporate studio management and his former employer, Universal. Till is a former president of Universal Pictures International (UPI), the international release arm of PFE, that, for a time, it was hoped would take on Universal’s overseas distribution activities when Universal bought PFE. However the US studio famously decided to stay with UIP and closed down UPI. Till left in 2000 and spent a year trying to create a new PFE through Signpost Films.

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