At the sixth annual C21/FRAPA Format Awards in Cannes, France, Patty Geneste was announced as new chair of FRAPA. The Format Recognition and Protection Association is the international body dedicated to the protection of formats. Geneste will begin as the new chair of FRAPA on January 1, 2013; she’ll replace Ute Biernat, CEO of GRUNDY Light Entertainment, who served as chair of FRAPA for seven years.

Says Geneste: “My watchwords as I take over the FRAPA chair are ‘passion’ and ‘respect’ — passion for the job, respect for our product, passion for the format business and, most of all, respect for the creators, without whom this industry would simply not exist.”