Sony hires Fox exec for a top job

Sony Pictures Entertainment Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra has begun assembling his leadership team, tapping a longtime Fox executive — Jon Hookstratten — to join the Culver City film and television studio.

Vinciquerra on Monday named Hookstratten as executive vice president of administration and operations, beginning July 10. Hookstratten represents the first executive recruited by Vinciquerra, who this month took the helm of the studio.

“I know Jon well from our time together at CBS, Fox and other stops along the way,” Vinciquerra said in a note to the staffannouncing the move. “He is a terrific executive with broad experience and insight not just in television networks, but in the entertainment space overall.”

Hookstratten will help Vinciquerra manage Sony Pictures’ day-to-day operations as well as coordinate and implement business strategies.

Until spring 2016, Hookstratten, 59, was executive vice president of broadcast distribution at the Fox Networks Group, overseeing the network’s relationships with TV station owners. An 11-year veteran of Fox, he was part of the exodus of experienced executives who took a voluntary buyout in a corporate restructuring. (Vinciquerra also worked in senior positions at Fox for a decade).

Earlier in his career, Hookstratten worked at NBCUniversal and Eyemark Entertainment, a division of CBS Corp. A lawyer by training, he represented on-air talent and professional athletes from 1988 to 1996.