Sony Pictures Animation heads Sandra Rabins and Penney Finkelman Cox have made the first executive hire for the newly created division. Nate Hopper, former VP of production at Twentieth Century Fox, has been named vice-president of creative affairs for Sony Pictures Animation. In his new position, Hopper will work closely with writers and directors in developing the company’s CG animated features.

Pow Wow Productions recently added five new animation directors to its roster: illustrator Sheila Aldridge; Tim Biskup, art director/designer for Cartoon Network's TIME SQUAD, and creator of his own short FREDDY SEYMORE'S AMAZING LIFE for Nickelodeon; David Brewster, supervising animator for feature films including OSMOSIS JONES, THE ROAD TO EL DORADO and THE PRINCE OF EGYPT; John Corbitt, illustrator and cartoonist whose work has appeared in TIME Magazine and the Chicago Tribune; and Miles Thompson an illustrator and painter who has worked on the animated series DEXTER'S LABORATORY and JOHNNY

Design studio B1 Media has added producer Dudley Johnson to its recently launched production division. Johnson, a former assistant producer, technical writer and product specialist at Disney Interactive, will be writing and producing for B1. While at Disney Interactive he helped produce the CD-Roms CINDERELLA’S DOLLHOUSE, YOU CAN FLY! WITH TINKER BELL and PRINCESS MAGICAL DRESS UP. Johnson previously wrote for the NBC sitcom DIFFERENT STROKES, and was a co-producer, executive story editor and writer for the ABC series WEBSTER.

Ken Olshansky has joined Scholastic Entertainment as the senior vice president of television programming. Formerly, Olshansky was senior vice president of creative affairs for TV-Loonland/Sunbow Entertainment, where he developed and produced GENERATION O for Kids WB!, THE CRAMP TWINS for Cartoon Network and DONNER for ABC Family. In his new position, Olshansky will oversee the development and production of various Scholastic Entertainment television projects, including international co-productions and the Soup2Nuts production group in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Portland,
Oregon-based Happy Hour Entertainment has signed animation and comedy
director Mike Wellins for commercial representation. Wellins,
formerly a commercial and entertainment director at Vinton Studios,
brings many years of award-winning filmmaking experience to Happy
Hour Entertainment. While at Vinton Studios, Mike directed the Annie
Award-winning spot "Genie" for Mirinda Soda, and his commercial for
the Sony Playstation game LEGEND OF DRAGOON was voted Best Animated

LEGO Media International
has tapped Vanessa Chapman to take over as head of its television and
film arm following the promotion of Conny Kalcher to a newly created
senior position within the LEGO Company's core business. Chapman
takes up the role of global controller of programming and strategy in
August 2002, when Kalcher becomes vice president, global brand
marketing for Stories, one of the LEGO Company's new brand portals.
The Stories division encompasses LEGO-themed product lines aimed at

After five years as executive vice president and general
manager, Tim Sarnoff has been promoted to president of Sony Pictures
Imageworks. The promotion recognizes Sarnoff's tenure as executive
VP, during which time he is credited with transforming Imageworks
into a leading visual effects and digital character animation
company. Ken Ralston, who has served as Imageworks creative leader
since his arrival at the company in 1995, extends his relationship
with Imageworks as senior visual effects supervisor. Ralston is

Bill Matthews, Disney Feature Animation's longtime training and recruitment head, has joined Glendale, California-based Cornerstone Animation’s Board of Advisors. In his new role, Matthews will advise Cornerstone executives and creative staff on strategies for recruitment, training, production management and creative direction of the studio. Matthews makes available to Cornerstone his wealth of experience as one of the founding instructors of the Sheridan College Animation Program and as a ten-year manager of artist development for Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Hallmark Entertainment has named Michael R. Oesterlin as director, International Sales where he will oversee Hallmark Entertainment programming sales throughout French-speaking territories, Turkey and Russia, and video worldwide. Before joining the company, Oesterlin was a sales executive for Warner Bros. International Television. While there, he was responsible for selling Warner Bros. programming to Free TV broadcasters throughout Africa, Israel, the Middle East and Turkey.

Director Keith Ingham has joined Bardel Entertainment to helm SILVERWING, a new animated television series based on Kenneth Oppel's best selling children's novel of the same name. Ingham came to Bardel from Walt Disney Animation Canada, where he worked for 3 years as an associate director on direct-to-video projects including THE LITTLE MERMAID: RETURN TO THE SEA and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS. Ingham also produced and directed the television special WINNIE THE POOH, A VALENTINE FOR YOU.