Former A. Smith & Co. Productions executive Toby Gorman (pictured) has been named president of NBC’s Universal Television Alternative Studio, taking the helm of the studio as it enters its third year in operation.

Gorman succeeds Meredith Ahr, who was promoted to president of NBC’s Alternative and Reality Group in November 2018.

In this role, Gorman will oversee key operations of the burgeoning studio, including development, domestic sales strategy and creative affairs across a diverse slate of unscripted programming.

Gorman’s purview will also include cultivating more than 30 producer overall deals, as well as development in the works with talent such as Amy Poehler, Jennifer Lopez and Jimmy Fallon.

“We have an incredibly ambitious growth plan for Universal Television Alternative Studio, and Toby is exactly who we want at the helm during this defining time,” Ahr said in a statement.

In addition to nine previously announced series for NBC, Gorman will oversee a domestic sales strategy that includes selling content to major networks and streaming platforms. He will also build on the studio’s current off-network slate that includes In Search of on History, The Biggest Loser on USA Network and Blind Date on Bravo, as well as a dozen other projects in various stages of development and production.

Most recently, he served as interim CEO of prodco Magical Elves and president of entertainment at A. Smith & Co. Productions, both of which are owned by the Tinopolis Group. In those positions, he acted as executive producer on the reboot of National Geographic’s Brain Games, Fox’s competition series Mental Samurai; and NBC’s The Titan Games. Gorman also served as executive producer on the Netflix series Death by Magic.