With an expanding production and development slate, The Jim Henson Company has appointed its first dedicated senior executive to oversee distribution. As EVP of global distribution, Richard Goldsmith will spearhead global sales across all platforms, including TV home entertainment and digital.

Prior to Goldsmith’s appointment, Henson’s distribution division was headed up by president and COO Peter Schube, who brought Patti Rose on board last year to focus on program distribution in the international markets.

“My hiring was a reaction to what is already happening at the company on the creative side. There is a large amount of development and production that’s close to being greenlit,” says Goldsmith.

For now, Goldsmith’s efforts are focused on Pajanimals, the company’s new half-hour series co-produced with 24-hour preschool channel Sprout and Northern Ireland’s Sixteen South. New episodes of the series, which will debut in the US in October on Sprout, will be previewed for the first time at next month’s MIPCOM marketplace.

Also on his plate will be fulfilling the digital needs of the company and third-party platforms such as Netflix and Apple.

Goldsmith joins the company from Warner Bros. Entertainment, where he most recently served as executive advisor for strategic distribution initiatives for both the digital distribution and consumer products divisions. In that capacity, he developed and acquired programming for transactional digital platforms and oversaw distribution for Warner Bros. Animation’s current television series in international markets.

Also an ex-Disneyite, Goldsmith had the opportunity work with Jim Henson himself early in his career.

“Henson has a huge history of producing content in this business,” he says. “So the opportunity to sell that content is once in a lifetime.”