EuropaCorp has announced the resignation of co-founding partner Pierre-Ange Le Pogam.

In a press release on Thursday, the company said Le Pogam was exiting his position but would remain a shareholder in the prolific studio.

The statement further noted that Le Pogam’s resignation came within the context of new top management. Christophe Lambert was named managing director of the studio in July 2010, per the press release, Le Pogam no longer exercised his strategic functions at the top of the company apart from recently producing Eric Lartigau’s L’Homme Qui Voulait Vivre Sa Vie.

According to French media reports, Le Pogam, who co-founded Europa with Luc Besson in 2000 after leaving a top spot at French major Gaumont, will start his own company. A call to Le Pogam for comment was not returned at press time.

Le Pogam and Besson go back a long way – the executive and sometime actor had an on-screen role in Besson’s Subway in 1985. Following that, the two worked together on such Besson films as The Big Blue and The Fifth Element, which were backed by Gaumont during Le Pogam’s tenure there.

In 2000, the pair founded EuropaCorp. where Le Pogam wore a full-on producer’s hat for the first time with the race car film Michel Vaillant in 2003. Since then, he has produced several films at Europa including Tommy Lee Jones’ award-winning The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada.