Stelios Ziannis, head of world sales at Germany's Kinowelt International for the past eight years, is leaving the company of his own accord at the end of December.

Ziannis will be succeeded by Barbara Knabe, Kinowelt's head of TV sales.

Kanbe will have responsibility for cooperation with the world sales and distribution unit of Studio Canal, who took over the German group in January 2008.

Ziannis has worked at Kinowelt for almost 20 years, starting at Filmverlag der Autoren which was taken over by Kinowelt in 1999.