E1 Entertainment has tapped Olivier Dumont as managing director of E1 Kids where he is charged with overseeing and uniting all the commercial and creative activities of E1 Kid’s combined operations including development, production, sales, licensing and merchandising. Speaking from the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on his third day on the job, and fresh off the plane from meetings in L.A. and Las Vegas, Dumont says his first priority at E1 Kids will be to unify the different teams under one brand.

‘E1 has been a conglomerate of companies and the first thing on my list will be to have a unified team and streamline the communication between the different offices,’ says Dumont.

Dumont was previously managing director of the now defunct Paris-based TV-Loonland, where he oversaw all creative and commercial activities for kids and family entertainment properties as well as developing those properties into global licensing and merchandising brands. In his new position, along with managing E1 Kids’ UK, Canadian and US activities, Dumont will assist in continually adding new children’s content and brands to the portfolio. To that end, he will also continue to oversee production and development at Frog Box (a company he founded in 2005, previously named ODM), which now has an exclusive distribution agreement with E1. Dumont says Frog Box includes about eight projects at different stages of development, some of which already have networks attached or are in negotiations with networks. Dumont will split his time between his Paris home and the London E1 offices.