Damian Keogh has been appointed CEO of the Hoyts Group following the planned retirement of Delfin Fernandez.

Keogh has been CEO of Val Morgan since July 2011 and prior to this was national sales director at Multi Channel Network (MCN) for seven years.

“Damian has demonstrated outstanding leadership at Val Morgan over the last two and a half years,” David Kirk, chairman of the Hoyts Group, said.

“He has grown cinema advertising revenue by more than 20 per cent in each of the last two years and led the investment strategy for Val Morgan Retail which has grown over 60 per cent in the past two years to be both Australia’s largest and fastest growing digital out of home advertising network,” Kirk said.

Keogh said he was looking forward to working with an iconic Australian brand.

“Hoyts is an iconic Australian brand and I am excited about the opportunities in the filmed entertainment business generally.Hoyts is well positioned to profit from the changes we are seeing in the industry, both at the cinema and in our growing home entertainment business,”

“The big screen in the cinema continues to be the most engaging medium possible for advertisers to showcasetheir brands and products and Val Morgan will continue to innovate and serve advertisers in the future as it has done so well in the past.”

Fernandez will continue to work with  Keogh before he departs on March 31.