Joop van den Ende

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.

Work in television

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.