German film industry veteran Wolfgang Braun has been appointed as CEO of sales and distribution company, Kinowelt. He replaces Jan-Pelgrom de Haas, who left the company at the end of last month.

A former Disney Germany chief, Braun will sit on StudioCanal’s International Executive Committee and report to Olivier Courson, CEO of StudioCanal.

Braun was senior vice president of The Walt Disney Company and general manager and managing director of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany for more than 15 years from 1992 to 2008.

Prior to that, he was managing director and chief executive of Paramount and Universal’s exhibition joint venture United Cinema International Multiplex (UCI). He opened Germany’s first ever multiplex in Hürth near Cologne and, later, the first multiplex to be built in former East Germany, near Leipzig.

Commenting on Braun’s appointment, Courson said that the appointment is “another step to achieving our ambition to make Kinowelt the leading independent movie distributor in Germany and a keystone in StudioCanal’s international development.”