Industry vet Mary Bredin will part ways with Toronto’s Guru Studio (Justin Time) at the end of the month, after serving as the company’s EVP of content and strategy for more than a decade.

Bredin will refocus her passion for IP creation and storytelling as a consultant, working on new kids projects for both TV and movies.

At Guru, Bredin helped the studio transition into original content through hit shows like Dinopaws, True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Big Blue.

“We’ve grown the original content side of our business over the last 10 years, and our collaboration with Mary has been very successful,” Frank Falcone, Guru’s president and executive creative director, tells Kidscreen. “While I’m sad to no longer work with Mary, I completely understand that her new direction makes sense for her.” 

Falcone adds that there will be no market-wide call for a new EVP of content and strategy.

Bredin’s exit follows the expansion of Guru’s senior management team, which recently added ex-Disney exec Kara Lord Piersimoni as VP of production, former Portfolio international sales director Jonathan Abraham as senior director of sales, and ex-Spin Master global brand manager Daniel Rattner as senior director of marketing.

Prior to Guru, Bredin spent eight years at Disney, moving up from manager of acquisitions for EMEA to become director of programming and acquisitions for the worldwide programming team. During her 25-year career, she also spent time at Nelvana, Telefilm Canada, Canal+ and PMMP in Paris.