Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) has promoted Haydn Arndt, based in BVITV’s London office, to director, sales, U.K. & Ireland, and Rory Buckley, also in London, has been promoted to senior sales executive, Central & Eastern Europe.

Visual effects vet Hael Kobayashi has joined Animal Logic, the Sydney-based visual effects house as digital artists manager to oversee recruiting, training and career development of the studio’s expanding ranks of digital artists.

Award-winning animator Patricia Beckmann has been named chair of the animation department in the School of Film and Digital Media at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

She is overseeing the department’s new major in animation, which launched in fall 2003 along with majors in broadcast design, interactive design and game development and visual as well as an undergraduate degree program in sound design.

Sesame Workshop has promoted Valerie Mitchell-Johnston from sr. counsel to vp of legal and business affairs, responsible for advising, counseling and closing contracts for the Workshop in all content development and production activities. Mitchell-Johnston oversees issues for the domestic production of SESAME STREET and international co-productions such as OUT THERE and TAKALANI SESAME in South Africa.

Visual effects producer Leighton Greer has joined the staff of Entity FX in Santa Monica, California. Previously she was visual effects producer at A52 where she produced spots for Nike, BMW, Nissan, Toyota, Cadillac, Volvo and Sony PlayStation. Prior to A52, Greer worked at Rhythm & Hues, Pinnacle Studios and Pacific Ocean Post.

Greer recently produced the award-winning Nike MOVE, directed by Jake Scott of RSA and Sony PlayStation’s SIGNS, directed by Dante Ariola of MJZ.

Silvia Orellana is the new production manager of Tridente Animation (part of Tridente&Monigotes), in charge of its business development, worldwide branding positioning, new marketing strategies implementation and closing new deals as well as looking after the needs of its clients. Madrid-based Tridente&Monigotes offers animation services and is moving into original content production and co-productions.

Kevin O’Donnell joins DIC Entertainment in the newly created position of svp of creative affairs at DIC Entertainment. O’Donnell, co-founder of Poet’s Road, a high-end development and multimedia production outfit, has moved his company to DIC headquarters in Burbank, California, and has been charged with overseeing concept and script development for all television programming. He will develop original properties for the U.S.

Roland Poindexter has been named to the new position of svp of action-adventure properties for Warner Bros. Animation, responsible for developing this programming for broadcast, cable and made-for-video outlets. Poindexter will also be responsible for supervising creative direction of selected current series in all genres and developing animated specials for kids, as well as adults.

3 Ring Circus, a full-service creative branding firm based in Los Angeles, has a new creative team on board, which has just finished a string of projects. Maziar Majd leads the team as creative director.

The filmmaking trio responsible for guiding Disney's new animated feature, BROTHER BEAR -- directors Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, and producer Chuck Williams -- have signed an exclusive deal to make their next feature for Walt Disney Feature Animation. Under the terms of the arrangement, Williams will produce, and Blaise and Walker will direct an unspecified animated feature for the studio.