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MIPCOM 2021, the first major international market to reunite the global television distribution and production communities in person since the global pandemic, has today announced the first of its keynote speakers: Alex Mahon, CEO of Channel 4, in conversation with Bouchra Rejani, Founder and CEO of WeMake, and Hugh Evans, Co-Founder and CEO, Global Citizen. This year’s programme focuses on putting social impact at the heart of industry conversations.

MIPCOM 2021 will welcome the industry back to the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, 11-14 October, for a week of face-to-face business meetings, content screenings, networking and a full conference programme.

Alex Mahon will be in conversation with Bouchra Rejani as part of a Women in Leadership keynote super session, featuring top female industry leaders sharing insights on how they are embracing and driving change and striving to make a positive impact at their company and global society levels. The session will take place in the Grand Auditorium, Palais des Festivals on Monday 11 October.

Alex Mahon is CEO of Channel 4 in the UK. At the end of 2020, Alex launched the Future4 strategy setting out Channel 4’s transformation into a digital-first public service broadcaster. Prior to Channel 4, she was CEO of Shine Group, which, during her tenure, grew into an organisation with 27 creative labels in 12 countries. She also worked at Talkback Thames, Fremantle Media Group and RTL Group. She was the recipient of Variety’s 2020 International Achievement in Television Award and has been honoured with an International Royal Industrial Fellowship. Alex speaks and writes extensively on representation, inclusion and diversity and is a passionate and committed advocate for inclusive workplaces.
Bouchra Rejani is the Founder and CEO of WeMake, a production and creative studio based in Paris, creating, producing and distributing original scripted and unscripted content for the French and international market. Before launching WeMake, Bouchra was COO of Shine France. She is a strong advocate for improved representation of French society on screen, to better promote diversity and inclusion and works with France’s regulatory body C.S.A at the Diversity Observatory. She produced an award-winning series of short films (“Citoyens Visibles”) to promote the richness of diversity in France, which was broadcast on all French channels. Born in Casablanca, and proud of her dual heritage, she promotes intercultural dialogue and cultural and economic bridges with the African continent.

Hugh Evans, Co-Founder and CEO of Global Citizen, will present an exclusive keynote on how Global Citizen has leveraged the power of broadcast to create ground-breaking entertainment specials that drive positive social impact. Social Impact Entertainment: A Global Citizen Keynote, will take place on Tuesday 12 October in the Grand Auditorium, Palais des Festivals.

Hugh Evans will take a behind-the-scenes look at the record-breaking “One World Together At Home,” which aired on all major free-to-air networks in the US, featured in 120 countries, and secured $127.9m for PPE during the peak of COVID-19. He will discuss hosting the first TV concert special “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World”, which brought together Selena Gomez, the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Jennifer Lopez and more, to help secure 26 million COVID19 vaccine doses for developing nations. He will explain how the team evolved from an 'event first' to 'broadcast first' organisation while ensuring their campaigns and shows remained entertaining while driving impact towards Global Citizen’s mission of ending extreme poverty.

The keynote will provide rare insights into Global Citizen’s biggest broadcast project to date, "Global Citizen Live," which featured a 24-hour broadcast from multiple stages across the world, including New York, Paris, Lagos, Seoul, Rio, Los Angeles and more. Hugh will also share a special look at “The Activist”, Global Citizen’s new Reality Competition TV series produced for CBS that will premiere on October 22, 2021, and provide more thoughts on a range of television and film projects in the pipeline to inspire activism in audiences of all ages - including reality, documentary, scripted, and animation.

Hugh Evans is an internationally renowned development advocate and humanitarian. His passion for poverty eradication was sparked at the age of 14. The abject poverty Hugh was exposed to led him to begin his work challenging the status quo of extreme poverty. Hugh co-founded the Oaktree Foundation, Australia’s first youth-run aid organisation. He then organised the Make Poverty History campaign in Australia, helping to run the 2006 Make Poverty History Concert. In 2009, Hugh co-founded Global Citizen, an international advocacy organisation committed to increasing the number and effectiveness of individuals taking action to end extreme poverty. In August 2012, Hugh launched the annual Global Citizen Festival — a free ticketed music event that coincides with the UN General Assembly meeting in September. The Festival has gone on to take place in London, Mumbai, Hamburg, Toronto, Berlin, and Johannesburg. To date, Global Citizens have taken over 28.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $35.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.09 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty.
Lucy Smith, Director of MIPCOM, said: “These two inspiring keynote sessions are perfect examples of the power of entertainment to drive change for good in our industry and in the world. The reunion of the international television community at MIPCOM this year provides a timely platform for these important issues to take centre stage.”