Village Roadshow Pictures Entertainment (VRPE) has promoted Matthew Velkes to the newly created position.

Velkes joined VRPE in October 2006 as CFO and in his new role will report to VRPE chairman and CEO Bruce Berman and Village Roadshow Entertainment Group CEO Greg Basser.

“We are pleased to recognise Matthew’s enormous contributions to Village Roadshow Pictures by naming him COO,” Basser and Berman said in a joint statement.

“During his six years at the company, Matthew’s work has expanded beyond the financial realm to that of a full-fledged motion picture executive. His extensive relationships in the community will serve the company well as we move forward to develop our next projects.”

Velkes said: “I look forward to building upon the great legacy here at Village Roadshow Pictures with the many exciting opportunities that lie ahead and look especially forward to our next slate of releases over the next two years.”

Velkes joined Twentieth Century Fox in 1996 after a career in investment banking and held various roles culminating in the position of svp motion pictures finance and business development.

In 2001 he joined former Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Bill Mechanic as CFO and later COO of Pandemonium.

Village Roadshow Pictures’ slate includes Cannes opener Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, animation The LEGO Movie, sci-fi All You Need Is Kill, starring Tom Cruise, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road and the Wachowskis’ sci-fi adventure Jupiter Ascending.