Jocelyn Longworth
People in New Jobs
NEWSAlliance Atlantis (Toronto, Canada, 416-967-1174): In the wake of Ken Faier’s departure to head up Nerd Corps as president, Alan Gregg has been promoted from director to VP of production and distribution for the children’s television department.
Build-a-Bear applies its formula to food service
NEWSAs if it didn’t have enough on the go, rolling out truck kiosks and a new Friends 2B Made doll concept, the Build-a-Bear Workshop has kitted out its brand-new Manhattan flagship store with a 100-seat café that stays true to its customization roots. The menu’s most tantalizing item is the chance to decorate a six-inch sugar cookie with a rainbow of icing choices, but the miniature hotdogs, chicken nuggets and pizza strips should also appeal to young diners. In fact, everything is designed to be eaten without utensils – thus the name Eat With Your Bear Hands Café. A joint-venture with Levy Restaurants, the snack stop just opened in mid-September. Build-a-Bear founder and CEO Maxine Webster doesn’t have any immediate plans to roll out cafés in any of the other BAB stores (which total more than 200 worldwide), but she isn’t ruling the option out for the future.
People in new jobs
NEWSBKN International (London, England, 44-207-269-8680): As the company continues to implement its expansion plans in the East, Amelia Bedford has joined as the newest homefront recruit. Coming straight off a stint as a senior brand manager for Angelina Ballerina and Barney at HIT Entertainment, Bedford takes up residence in BKN’s London office, and will manage all of the company’s Brit-based licensing activity as U.K. brand manager.
Fournier tapped to start up GalaKids biz
NEWSHaving taken a year off to survey the market and set up his next kids entertainment move from behind the scenes, distribution veteran Louis Fournier is officially back in the game as head of GalaKids. A start-up subsidiary of Montreal, Canada’s Galafilm, the new division will focus on original concepts and co-pros for preschoolers and kids six to 11. The plan is to stick to comedy-driven concepts – so while action may be part of the mix on some projects, it’ll take a backseat to humor.
People in New Jobs
NEWSAardman Animations (Bristol, England, 44-117-984-8485): With Chop Socky Chooks (a co-pro with Cartoon Network Europe and Decode), Shaun the Sheep (a CBBC and WDR commission) and The Flowerheads (Cbeebies is on-board) in its kids animation pipeline, Aardman has set up Richard Goleszowski to help keep up the faster output pace as creative director of broadcast and development. ‘Golly’ has racked up a lot of in-house directing credits in his 20 years with the company, working on projects including Creature Comforts, Rex the Runt and Robbie the Reindeer.
TV-L bolstered by an infusion of new blood
NEWSGerman animation studio TV-Loonland finally seems to have found its footing after a year of management upheaval. Olivier Dumont has been brought aboard to get the company’s development and distribution businesses back on track as COO. Dumont has worked in sales (as head of business and legal affairs for Europe Images International), programming (as head of acquisitions at Canal J) and production (most recently as managing director of SIP Animation) over the course of his career, so he brings a well-rounded TV business perspective to the table.
The definitive kids ent resource.Photos
Kidscreen Summit 2010 -