Italian prodco Rainbow has appointed Rick Mischel as the CEO of Vancouver, Canada-based Bardel Entertainment.

Prior to taking the reins at Bardel, Mischel served as a producer at Sony Pictures Animation for four years, working on projects such as the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs TV series for Cartoon Network and the Hotel Transylvania TV series for Disney Channel. Previously, Mischel was SVP of satellite production at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and also served as EVP of animation and interactive services at Technicolor.

With Mischel established as CEO, Rainbow also announced that Bardel founders Delna Bhesania and Barry Ward are exiting the company this year. No timelines were given.

Rainbow, home to the billion-dollar Winx Club franchise, acquired the animation service provider back in 2015. The two companies are currently at work on their first project together, 44 Cats, a CGI preschool series that will air on Germany’s Super RTL in 2019, several other broadcast announcements are also in the pipeline.

Bardel forged its reputation doing animation service work for companies like Nickelodeon, DreamWorks and Disney.