Joop van den Ende

Johannes "Joop" Adrianus van den Ende (born 23 February 1942) is a Dutch theatrical producer, co-founder of international television production company Endemol and founder/owner of Stage Entertainment, Europe's largest live entertainment company. Stage Entertainment was established in 1998 after being split off from the Live Entertainment Division of Endemol. The company has offices and theatres in eight countries (the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Russia).

Van den Ende started his career at age 15 as a trainee set carpenter for the Dutch Opera. Ten years later, in 1968, he opened his first independent theatrical and television production agency, Spotlight, followed by the creation in 1971 of Joop van den Ende Theaterproducties. Over the next decade his stage and television activities continued to expand, establishing him as one of the Netherlands' leading impresarios.

In 1983 he bought a former flower auction building near Amsterdam which he turned into a large studio complex where he could record his television productions. In September 1988, van den Ende produced a Dutch version of the musical Barnum in the Scheveningen Circustheater, starting a new musical tradition in the Netherlands that continues to this day. In October 1993 he opened his first show on Broadway: Cyrano. The production ran until March 1994, and although the show resulted in a financial loss, the musical was van den Ende's introduction to Broadway and earned him the respect of his American peers.

In 1993, Van den Ende and John de Mol created television production company Endemol, combining the activities of their respective television production companies. Endemol went on to become the world's largest independent television production company, creating popular TV formats such as Big Brother, Fear Factor, Dancing with the Stars and Wipeout.

Endemol was listed on the stock exchange in 1996, and in 2000 was sold to the Spanish telecom giant Telefónica for €5.5bn. In 2007 Endemol was sold on to a consortium including Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy, as well as John de Mol, in a deal valued at €2.6bn.

In 1998, before the sale of Endemol, Van den Ende personally bought and took control of Endemol's live entertainment division. This was the beginning of Stage Entertainment, which soon grew into an international entertainment group.

Van den Ende's early work in live entertainment received international critical acclaim. In 1995 he received five Tony Awards for the Broadway musical Titanic, which he co-produced. In 2001 he was also awarded two Tony Awards for the musical 42nd Street, and in 2002 he received two Tony Awards for his Broadway production Into the Woods, plus three more for the play Urinetown.

Under van den Ende's leadership, Stage Entertainment grew rapidly at this time, much attributed to a licensing agreement made in 2000 with Disney Theatrical Productions ( Aida, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) and an intensive collaboration in Europe with Littlestar, Mamma Mia!'s production company. This enabled the business to expand into Germany, Spain, Russia, France, Italy and the UK.