• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 13, 2011

Multimedia entertainment studio Electus on Tuesday named Chris Grant as its new CEO.

Effective Nov. 1, Grant will tackle what Electus is calling its "next phase of growth" across global TV, digital and branded entertainment.

Grant previously served as president of Shine International, the global sales and distribution arm responsible for distributing programming from the Shine Group companies, including Reveille, Kudos, Dragonfly and Princess Productions.

Founded in 2009 by former NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman and Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, Electus has an existing international distribution partnership with Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group.

In addition, Drew Buckley, COO of Electus, will expand his role, taking responsibility for all operations including digital, advertising, finance, mergers and acquisitions and managing the company's Yahoo, Microsoft and Google relationships.

Together with Buckley, Grant and will report directly to Silverman, who will continue to oversee all aspects of the company, including creative opportunities and expansion strategies with partners such as CollegeHumor, Notional, DumbDumb, Electus Distribution, 5x5 Media, and DiGa.

At Shine, Grant is credited with helping to establish non-scripted properties, including "MasterChef," "The Biggest Loser" and "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader," into global TV brands.

Silverman is counting on Grant's experience to serve as a launching pad for Electus' domestic TV agenda.

For Grant, acquisitions are the name of the game. "I expect to collaborate with Ben and Drew to aggressively seek out and acquire U.S and U.K. companies," Grant said on Tuesday.

Which companies, exactly? Only those that "can create international productions that live and thrive on a variety of platforms and that can leverage Electus' distribution model," Grant added.

Prior to Shine International, Grant served as a managing director at production and distribution company Reveille.

At the beginning of the year, Electus acquired Engine Entertainment, with which it formed an in-house global distribution arm named Electus/Engine Distribution to handle worldwide sales for Electus' content, including television, motion picture and digital.

At the time of the deal, Electus said the acquisition would not disrupt its partnership with Shine Group -- which, according to Electus, would continue to handle international distribution.