James Burstall is CEO of Argonon, one of the UK’s top international independent production groups. The group is headquartered in London with hubs in New York, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, Liverpool and Glasgow.
Founded by James, the group has won more than 125 international awards including Emmys, BAFTAs and Royal Television Society Awards, and encompasses nine world class production companies. The group produces shows ranging from smash hit entertainment show The Masked Singer through to iconic current affairs programme Dispatches, critically-acclaimed BBC One series Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard to much-loved BBC drama Worzel Gummidge, Catherine Tait-fronted Netflix comedy series Hard Cell to long-running hit US series House Hunters International. Argonon makes programming across drama, documentary, investigative current affairs, science, tech, reality, lifestyle, gameshow and prime time entertainment for broadcasters, platforms and social media companies ranging from BBC to ITV, Netflix to Snapchat, Discovery to Channel 4.
Before Argonon, James was CEO of Leopard Films, producing long-running series and formats including Cash in the Attic, which has aired in 167 countries, as well as award-winning documentary series, and the dramas Eve (RTS winner), Missing, and An Englishman in New York, starring John Hurt.
James has worked as an executive producer and producer-director for broadcasters all over the world. Prior to his television career, he was a journalist, working as a writer and editor in Paris, London and New York for Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveller, HG, Vogue, The Daily Mail and The Evening Standard.
Educated at the University of Bristol, James has studied at the business schools of Oxford and Stanford in California. He is a speaker at Said Business School, University of Oxford, on entrepreneurship and ethical leadership and has recently contributed a chapter to a book on how diversity and inclusion give business the cutting edge. He was selected as one of the Top 50 Leading Lights, Kindness and Leadership UK, 2021.
James is a Council Member for PACT (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television), the hugely respected trade association body which represents and promotes the commercial interests of the UK TV and film industry, one of the largest and most important in the world.. He stood for Council motivated by a desire to give a platform to under-represented voices across the industry, which has been a cornerstone of his businesses for over two decades. James is also passionate about tackling the climate crisis, collaborating with industry organisations including Creative UK and the BBC. James both set up and oversees Argonon’s own Climate Action Group, enabling the group to take a lead on tackling climate change within the wider creative industry.
James led the Argonon group through the pandemic, pioneering Covid-19 protocols that enabled production to continue during the pandemic and have been widely adopted throughout the industry.
Inspired to share the hard-won lessons of Argonon’s successful emergence through a period which not only rocked the foundations of the global entertainment industry but the wider business world, James set out to share his experiences and learnings – and those of fellow leaders across a range of industries – in his debut published book, The Flexible Method: Prepare to Prosper in the Next Global Crisis.
Over a 12-month period, James outlined the razer-sharp strategies, techniques and actions that enabled Argonon to not only survive but come out of the pandemic in better shape than ever before. The book does not only focus on the pandemic; it takes in lessons learnt from navigating other crises, both local and global, including the financial crisis of 2008, Hurricane Katrina and many others. And as an avid collaborator who loves hearing other people’s stories, the book includes interviews with other industry leaders, who share the own personal and insightful experiences of successfully tackling potentially catastrophic events in their own business arena.
James is a regular speaker as an industry leader on both sector and wider business platforms, including the Financial Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, City AM, Edinburgh TV Festival, Realscreen, Creative UK, Creative Cities Convention, Realscreen, Variety, Deadline, Broadcast, C21 and Television Business International.
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