Career at a Glance

– Received a BA from Rutgers University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

– Worked as a tax lawyer with the firm of Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett.

– Spent eight years with the National Basketball Association and NBA Properties as vice president of business development, and ran several NBA consumer products divisions.

– In 1993, joined the Marvel Entertainment Group, where he served as president and general manager of Fleer Entertainment Cards, president of Fleer Corp., and executive vice president of Marvel Comics.

The New Job

– Steps into the position of senior vice president of the newly formed entertainment licensing unit, which oversees merchandising and consumer products licensing of Hearst’s television and feature film properties. The unit’s initial activities will include the merchandising and licensing of The Phantom, Prince Valiant, the animated series Flash Gordon, as well as Hearst’s reality-based programming, such as Our Home, World’s Greatest Magic and Modern Marvels.

The Challenge

‘The immediate focus is Flash Gordon the character, and the challenge is to create the aura around Flash Gordon that the character deserves and to integrate that into the overall positioning of Flash as an American icon. The other part of the job is to do something unusual . . . to find unusual licensing opportunities that go beyond the hats and T-shirts.’