One Of Us unveils new leadership team

One Of Us has revealed a new leadership team, with co-founder and director Rachael Penfold named as CEO.

Penfold will continue to co-own the VFX house with fellow founders Tom Debenham and Dominic Parker, which has grown to 400 employees since its launch in 2004. Before creating One Of Us, Penfold was head of film production at Framestore for a decade. 

Meanwhile, other additions to the leadership team include Neil Boughen, who joins the company as CTO after over a decade at MPC, most recently as head of technology. Rob Shears becomes global head of production, after four years at ILM as a VFX producer and executive producer. He has also held similar roles at Framestore, Sky, and DNEG.

Shears replaces Aimee Dadswell, who moves to production executive, focusing on strategic and creative development. Dadswell was head of production for four years, previously holding VFX producer roles with DNEG, Framestore, and Cinesite. Dadswell will be working closely with head of new projects Louise Hastings on the studio’s relationships with creative filmmaking partners.

Finally, Ben Harrison arrives as head of resourcing, having previously been head of production at MPC for the past two-and-a-half years. Harrison spent eight years at MPC in total, and has also held positions at The Mill and Prime Focus.

Other existing members of the senior team will continue in their roles.

Penfold said: “We go from strength to strength as a studio, our reputation is strong, and we have a collective confidence in our approach. With growth in Paris, and an ever stronger presence in London, we have made careful strategic decisions to ensure that we have the best possible structure to support the next phase of our development.”

She added: “We are really excited about the future of One of Us, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderfully talented and knowledgeable team around me. There are so many fantastic projects happening in the industry, and we want One of Us to be able to compete for the choicest work - to win it, and to execute it beautifully.”

One Of Us has recently completed VFX work on the likes of Netflix’s Bridgerton and The Sandman, as well as feature film Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore.