Unanico Group has named Leanne Preston as its new producer and CEO. Preston will be responsible for content development, production and global partnership strategies and will be based in LA as the UK company expands in the US.
Preston, the company’s first CEO, will start the role full time this month, and will take over responsibilities previously handled by Paul Laikin (who remains at the company as co-founder and managing director).
Preston joins Unanico from Citizen Skull Productions, where she served as head of production and development for animation. She has previously held roles with Nickelodeon, Gaumont Animation and Digitoonz Media & Entertainment.
Unanico’s animated series Buddi launched globally with Netflix in March. The preschool show is executive produced by PAW Patrol creator Keith Chapman and was designed to be a calming escape from the stresses young children often face.
The company focuses on 2D, 3D and CG animation, developing and producing properties in-house as well as co-developing and co-producing IPs with partners. It has a number of new original series, feature films and music partnerships in development.