Press Release from Fitz Roy Media
NEW YORK -- (May 27, 2009) -- Fitz Roy Media announced today the appointment of Jonathan Breiter and Jennifer Zivic, two of the industry's most respected licensing and merchandising executives, as the designated U.S. licensing agents for the company's slate of children's properties. Breiter and Zivic will launch their representation of Fitz Roy's newest kid franchises including FUNNY FACE, HEATHCLIFF and SECRET WINGS at the 2009 Licensing International Expo in June.
Also added to the team are leading publishing industry executive Jon Rosenberg, who will represent Fitz Roy's slate of properties exclusively throughout the publishing industry and veteran development executive Richard Oren, who will be the exclusive agent handling promotional opportunities.
"Breiter, Zivic, Rosenberg and Oren undoubtedly comprise a team of highly regarded industry leaders whose depth of experience and expertise in the kids business would be difficult to match. We are extremely proud of our new association and look forward to their sage guidance in maximizing the potential for our proprietary children's brands," said Fitz Roy Media CEO Hamp Hampton.
Breiter began his career in advertising as part of the team that won the "Burger Wars" with the award winning "Where's the Beef" campaign for Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. He then moved on to Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (now known as Saatchi & Saatchi) as the lead account manager for General Mills' Yoplait Yogurt brand. In 1987, he joined Griffin Bacal Advertising where he led the Hasbro toy account including the Playschool and Milton Bradley Games brands. Two years later, Breiter joined Hasbro as Associate Vice President Marketing in their burgeoning infant and toddler business and was later promoted to Senior Vice President.
He left Hasbro to start his own room decor company, Ohbaby!, securing the SESAME STREET and BARNEY licenses, and subsequently sold the company to The Betesh Group. Today, the business exceeds $100 million in net sales.
Over his 10-year tenure with Betesh, Breiter has led all of the licensing initiative for BABY BOOM, FUNHOUSE and BANAFISH including becoming the first license for SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS and an early licensee for at the launch of some of today's most successful brands including: POKEMON, Care Bears, Eddie Bauer, and YO GABBA GABBA.
Breiter is currently a Principal at New York-based Public Group LLC where he runs the area that specializes in licensing and retail relations, representing such well-known brands as: The Gummy Bears, Maxx The Sock Monkey, The Macbeth Collection, notNeutral, fuseproject (Yves Behar), Skip Hop and WallCandy Arts.
Zivic is a seasoned director with extensive experience in the manufacturing and licensing of consumer products. She began her career at Taratoy Corporation in the Kid's Stationery Division, where she served as Director of Marketing and Product Development. At Taratoy, she introduced new Barbie, Hot Wheels and Polly Pocket branded lines of stationery products for kids and novelty stationery product lines for Peeps and Felix the Cat. Zivic also spent seven years with Mattel Toys in various roles, where she managed SESAME STREET and Barbie businesses.
Most recently, Zivic was Director of Licensing -- Soft Lines at HIT Entertainment, responsible for managing and growing HIT's soft lines business, including such mega brands in the children's marketplace as: THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE, BOB THE BUILDER, BARNEY, ANGELINA BALLERINA, FRAGGLE ROCK and RAINBOW MAGIC.
Jon Rosenberg is a successful executive with over 18 years of experience building worldwide businesses in the publishing and brand-licensing industries. As president of Jokar Productions, LLC Jon has provided brand development, marketing services, style guide development, editorial direction, design, packaging produce development, project management, world-wide sourcing, and consulting services to entertainment companies and book publishers including: Disney, Wee Sing Productions, The Save Our Seas Foundation, Turner Publishing, Bowtie Press, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network.
Jon also served as Executive Director, Worldwide Publishing and Licensing for MGM, where he expanded and grew the licensed publishing business. His publishing expertise led to the establishment of an open-source IP publishing platform for the creation of an in-house book packaging and custom publishing division.
Prior to MGM he served as an Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster, Vice President of Intervisual Books, and co-founded the children's book packaging company, Bumpy Slide Books.
Richard Oren has been working in brand licensing, marketing and business development for more than 20 years. He began his career in business development for a full-service communications company, providing B2B solutions in printing, graphic design, blueprinting and other media.
After receiving his MBA in marketing from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, Richard worked as a brand manager for Arcotoys, a division of Mattel, managing product development for Disney's Winnie the Pooh brand. He later worked at The Jim Henson Company as a licensing manager, where he handled licensing sales and brand management for The Muppets, BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE and Farscape.
For six years, Richard was the head of HBO's Licensing and Retail group, where he was responsible for such successful brand extensions as the New York Times #1 best-seller, THE SOPRANOS FAMILY COOKBOOK, and the highly successful SEX AND THE CITY: KISS AND TELL series companion book. Most recently, Richard was VP of Licensing for Target Entertainment Group, a UK-based media and licensing agency. He managed licensing in the U.S. and Latin America for burgeoning brands such as Fluffy Gardens, Fifi and the Flowertots, and the upcoming feature film, THE NUTCRACKER: THE UNTOLD STORY.
