Turner Studios Promotes Laura Dames to EVP & GM

Laura Dames has been elevated to Executive Vice President and General Manager of Turner Studios. In this role, Dames will oversee all facets of Turner Studios, the next generation production division that supports the entire Turner portfolio – including its leading entertainment networks and multimedia properties – on a global scale.

Dames, a 24-year Turner veteran, will focus on continuing to develop the infrastructure of Turner Studios to best meet the needs of a rapidly changing media environment.  Under Dames’ leadership, Turner Studios has become an innovative, central hub for the production, collaboration and coordination of media assets throughout all Turner divisions. Turner Studios encompasses a broad range of creative capabilities including production, post production, design, live events, emerging media and social media monitoring and content generation.

Dames and her leadership team are also responsible for coordinating cross brand communication and activities surrounding key tent pole events for the company, including the Turner Upfront and special Turner showcases at industry events such as CES and Comic-Con. Dames will continue to report to Daniels.

“Laura is an amazing leader who has successfully developed an infrastructure that continues to position Turner Studios as an innovative content creation division helping to fuel the full breadth of the Turner portfolio,” says Lenny Daniels, President of Turner Sports. “I’m confident she will continue to propel our business forward, developing new and innovative ways to create rich content experiences across a growing number of media platforms while also leveraging Turner’s capabilities to engage with our audiences in new and meaningful ways.”

Through Dames’ direction, Turner Studios collaborates with more than 70 departments across all Turner divisions –  including TNT, TBS, truTV, Turner Sports, Cartoon Network, CNN, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and the recently launched Filmstruck – along with Bleacher Report and Great Big Story.  Overall, more than 400,000 hours are devoted to content and creative production through Turner Studios each year covering nearly 2,000 projects.

The Turner Studios team includes hundreds of highly skilled artists and craftspeople, most of whom are concentrated in a 300,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Atlanta.  Turner Studios is home to TNT’s Inside the NBA, NBA TV and ELEAGUE, the MLB on TBS and NCAA tournament coverage originating from Atlanta, as well as TCM and many other productions.

Dames has held several senior leadership positions throughout her Turner career, most recently as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Turner Studios (since 2015).  She has also been SVP of Business Operations for Turner Entertainment Networks including TBS, TNT, TCM and truTV; SVP of Marketing Operations for TNT, TBS and TCM; and VP of Marketing Operations for TNT.

Dames joined Turner in 1992 after graduating summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a bachelor of arts in communications and a certificate in film studies.

She currently serves on the Alumni Advisory Board for the UMASS department of Communications and as the Co-Chair for Turner Women Today, a corporate resource group dedicated to the support and advancement of female executives at Turner.