Toronto, Canada-based Temple Street Productions has tapped former Tricon Film & Television exec Jon Rutherford to lead its new distribution arm, it was announced Thursday.

Rutherford becomes president of distribution at Temple Street, and will be responsible for running the division with a focus on expanding content distribution globally and across all platforms. He will report directly to Temple Street Productions managing director John Young.

In addition to Rutherford’s hire, Temple Street also announced it has inked a worldwide content deal with Netflix for its tween series Lost & Found Music Studios (formerly In The Music Room). The half-hour series, commissioned by Family Channel, follows a group of young musicians at a prestigious music studio. Lost & Found is set to premiere on Family Channel in 2016, and will bow on Netflix in global territories outside of Canada and the UK shortly afterwards. The series will be branded as a Netflix Original on the streamer.

In a release, the company said the move is part of a larger strategy to expand Temple Street’s content production, distribution operations and strategic acquisitions. Rutherford, whose departure from Tricon was announced yesterday, has also held positions at Portfolio Entertainment as head of distribution and head of operations at Technicolor Creative Services.

The official launch of a new distribution division at Temple Street comes about a month after Fairfax Financial Holdings took a majority stake in the prodco. The Toronto-based investor has holdings in a wide range of industries, including insurance, investment management and hospitality.

From Playback Online