People in new jobs

June 1, 2000 by Kidscreen Staff

Artisan Entertainment (Santa Monica, California, 310-449-9200): LeAnne Gayner has been hired as senior VP of marketing. Gayner will be responsible for aligning Artisan’s movie publicity, promotion and on-line activities under one banner. Gayner was most recently with management consulting firm AmeriWest Systems.

Artisan Consumer Products (Santa Monica, California, 310-449-9200): Ferrell McDonald has been named VP of consumer products at the new division of Artisan Entertainment. She joins Artisan from a stint at Salerno & Associates, where she was director of marketing.

Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group (Burbank, California, 818-560-1000): Nina Jacobson takes over as president, on the heels of departing co-president Todd Garner, with whom she shared the title.

Children’s Television Workshop (New York, New York, 212-595-3456): Martha Van Gelder has been named group VP of international television and licensing. Van Gelder takes up the new job from her previous role as regional VP of Asia and Latin America at CTW. Roger Estrada comes on-board as VP of creative for products, international television group from Universal Studios Consumer Products, where he was senior art director.

Fox Family Channel (Los Angeles, California, 310-235-5100): Tom Halleen will head up the newly created original movie department division as VP of original movies, acquisitions and scheduling. Halleen was most recently VP of prime-time acquisitions and scheduling.

Fox Family Worldwide (Los Angeles, California, 310-235-5100): Lydia Ash has been promoted to VP of standards and practices for prime-time programming from her position as director of educational policies and program practices, and Kelly DeLap has been upped to VP of education and standards for children’s programming from director of educational policies and program practices. Jamie Chasalow has also been promoted to VP of consumer insight from director of the same division. She will be responsible for overseeing research for FW brands, including Fox Kids, Fox Family and the boyzChannel and girlzChannel.

The Geppetto Group (New York, New York, 212-462-8140): Leland Rogan has been named president. He joins the ad agency that specializes in the teen market from a stint at b. little + company promo agency, where he was a founding partner. lrogan@geppettogroup.com

Griffin Bacal (New York, New York, 212-415-2900): Stephen McCamley has been named management supervisor at the agency, where he will oversee the Hasbro account, handling brands that include Tonka and Nerf. McCamley jumped ship from Hasbro, where he was VP of marketing.

ITEL (London, England, 44-207-491-1441): Ian Jones will take over as chief executive next month after the departure of Andrew Macbean. Jones was recently upped to COO of the distribution arm.

Jakks Pacific (Malibu, California, 310-456-7799): Len Mazzocco has been appointed senior VP of product development at the toyco. He comes on-board from a stint at Fisher-Price, where he was senior VP of product design. Jennifer Strauss-Richmond has been upped to VP of marketing from director.

KCTS/Seattle Public Television (Seattle, Washington, 206-443-6798): David Rabinovitch joins the prodco of Bill Nye the Science Guy fame as VP for production. Rabinovitch most recently worked on The Learning Channel’s The Plot to Kill Lincoln.

Lyrick Studios (Dallas, Texas, 972-390-6000): Debbie Ries and Sue Beddingfield have both been promoted to group VP of sales and marketing, respectively. Ries was most recently VP of sales and Beddingfield was VP of marketing at the prodco behind Barney & Friends.

Mainframe Entertainment (Vancouver, Canada, 604-714-2600): Dan DiDio has been upped from VP to senior VP of creative affairs and Ace Fipke has been promoted to VP of creative development from his former position as producer on Transformers, Beasties and Beast Machines. Both will continue to work out of Mainframe’s L.A. office.

ddidio@mainframe.com, ace@reboot.com

Mattel Interactive (El Segundo, California, 310-252-2000): Kevin Richardson has been promoted to head of television development and new business at Mattel Interactive from his position as director of interactive. Gina Biegel was also upped to manager and producer of entertainment specialty markets from her previous job as associate producer.

krichardson@learningco.com, gbiegel@learningco.com

Nickelodeon (New York, New York, 212-258-7500): Lolee Aries has been named VP of production at Nickelodeon Animation Studios. She was most recently VP of production at Film Roman. Darlene Chapman has been named VP of promotions and marketing at Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite from her post as account director. Gina Ross also joins as VP of marketing at Nickelodeon Movies from a stint as director of multicultural marketing at Buena Vista Pictures.

Nickelodeon Consumer Products (New York, New York 212-258-7500): Stephen Youngwood has been named VP of interactive products and book publishing, a newly created position at the company. He was most recently director of software, books and new business.

Sega of America (Redwood City, California, 415-701-3810): Peter Moore has been promoted to president and COO of Sega of America Dreamcast from his position as senior VP of marketing. Moore will oversee the company’s on-line and console games business in North America. Shinobu Toyoda also joins the Dreamcast team as executive VP of content strategy, Chris Gilbert becomes executive VP of sales, marketing and operations, and Neal Robinson has been upped to VP of third-party licensing from his post as group director of the same division.

TV France International (Paris, France, 33-14-53-2300): Mathieu Béjot takes over from departing Olivier-René Veillon as managing director of TV France International. He was most recently an audio/visual attaché at the French Embassy in Japan, in charge of promoting French TV, radio, film and music.

Viacom Consumer Products (Hollywood, California, 213-956-5000): Nancy Bassett has been upped to the new position of VP of worldwide sales and licensing. Bassett was most recently VP of international licensing. Marc Mostman has also been promoted from director to executive director of domestic licensing.

Walt Disney Records (Burbank, California, 818-973-4361): Robert Marick joins the record company as VP of sales and trade marketing from a five-year stint at Time Warner, where he was most recently VP of sales and marketing for WEA.

Warner Bros. Consumer Products (Burbank, California, 818-954-6000): Audrey Schlaepfer has been promoted to executive VP of merchandising for the Studio Store division. Schlaepfer was most recently senior VP of hard goods and gallery.

Warner Bros. (Burbank, California, 818-954-6000): Charles Dages moves up to senior VP of emerging technology at Warner Bros. New Media from his previous job as senior VP of technical operations at WB. Kevin Tsujihara is temping as head of WB’s Entertaindom Web site after president and CEO Jim Moloshok, executive VP Jim Banister and Jeff Weiner left their positions at the dot.com.

Wonder Group (Cincinnati, Ohio, 513-357-2950): Doug Bergheger comes on-board the consulting group specializing in the youth market as senior producer from his previous position at Sive/Young & Rubicon. Bergheger will be in charge of clients that include ToyMax and MegaBloks.

Zak Designs (Spokane, Washington, 509-244-0555): The licensed kids dinner ware company has reworked its corporate structure, upping Susan Perkins to the new position of senior VP of marketing from VP of product development. Craig Seaver has been named senior director of licensing from his position as director of licensing at Gibson Greetings.

Please send your people news (including the person’s photo and e-mail address) to Jocelyn Longworth at KidScreen, People in New Jobs,

366 Adelaide St. West, Suite 500, Toronto, Ont., Canada, M5V 1R9; fax: 416-408-0870; e-mail: jlongworth@brunico.com.