The Board of Directors of Teletoon has appointed veteran broadcasting executive Len Cochrane as president of the Teletoon television network, which operates 24-hour English and French animation services across Canada. Cochrane replaces John Riley, recently named president of Astral Television Networks. Cochrane served as president of The Family Channel Inc. for the past 11 years, and led that network's growth as a premium service with over 309,000 subscribers to one of the most successful television channels with over 4.3 million subscribers.

Margaret Loesch, founding president and CEO of Crown Media U.S., will be departing the company next month at the conclusion of her contract. On leaving her post at Crown, Loesch said “I'm very proud of the many accomplishments made by the team that I've helped build. But, while the experience has been exciting, it has also been all-consuming personally and professionally. As I near the end of my contract, it seems like an ideal time to take a much-needed break and put some focus on my family, and then begin to pursue my other career goals.'' She will be replaced by Lana E.

Family media company Big Idea Productions, creators of the successful VeggieTales home video franchise, has expanded its animation production division with the addition of Dan Philips as vice president of production and Ameake Owens as producer. In his new position as vice president of production, Philips will oversee all aspects of production for Big Idea and develop strategies to strengthen the studio's various production-related departments. Prior to joining Big Idea Productions, Philips worked with DreamWorks SKG as the digital supervisor for THE ROAD TO EL DORADO.

According to a VARIETY report, Clive Smith, veteran animator and Nelvana senior executive VP, has resigned from the Toronto-based animation company to pursue other projects. Smith started Nelvana in 1971 with Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, who will remain at the company as co-CEOs. Smith was the creative force behind such shows as BABAR, RUPERT and CARE BEARS and most recently was involved in the development of HEIDI, a feature adaptation of the classic children’s story.

Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials, a division of Klasky Csupo, Inc., has signed animation director Chris Prynoski for commercial representation. Prynoski recently finished directing a Budweiser spot for Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials and DDB Chicago called, “Foot-Long Hot Dog Inventor.” Prynoski has previously worked for MTV’s animation division as a storyboard artist, designer, layout artist, animator and director. During his stint at MTV, he worked on shows including BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD, THE HEAD and DARIA.

Jerry Pooler has been appointed creative director and Brad Reinke manager of the Cinesite Hollywood Digital Restoration division. "Jerry Pooler and Brad Reinke are a great team," says Ruth Scovill, president and COO of Cinesite Hollywood. "They are leading an ambitious effort to leverage the most advanced digital technology to help our customers faithfully restore priceless films in their libraries to their original condition." Pooler has been a visual effects and restoration supervisor at Cinesite since 1992.

In its continuing efforts to maximize the strengths of management, and to ensure the greatest operating efficiencies for the company, children’s video game publisher NewKidCo International Inc., has made several changes to its senior management team. Allan Blum has resigned from his position as VP marketing and Barry Fried will be joining the company as vice president and chief financial officer. As a senior financial executive with more than 20 years of public accounting and private industry experience, Fried will play a large role in NewKidCo's strategic plans.

Canadian visual effects and animation studio Calibre has hired a new team of talent to aid in the company’s expansion into production of animated children’s series. Calibre is currently creating the CG portion of 26 half-hour episodes of the AAC KIDS/BBC UK co-production, ACE LIGHTNING AND THE CARNIVAL OF DOOM, a live-action/CG combination children’s series for broadcast on CBBC, the BBC’s new children’s block in fall 2002.

Digital Artists Agency, which represents visual effects professionals for work in feature films, television and commercials, has hired former visual effects supervisor Janet Muswell as an artists' representative. Since relocating to the United States from Great Britain, Muswell has held visual effects artist staff positions with The Post Group and Digital Magic. She was visual effects supervisor on projects such as the 1996 television mini-series TITANIC and the Sci-Fi Channel series THE INVISIBLE MAN. Most recently she served as director of visual effects for the Livewire Television group.

Sunbow Entertainment has promoted two members of their staff into newly created positions. Suzanne Berman becomes associate director of creative affairs and Sowon Jun takes on the role of coordinator of creative affairs. Suzanne Berman worked at Sony Wonder, New York from 1997 until winter 2000 when TV-Loonland founded Sunbow Entertainment Inc. out of its acquisition of Sunbow Productions and the entire TV production and distribution business activities of Sony Music Entertainment. Over the period of four years, she steadily rose through the ranks in the development area.