Will Vinton Studios has promoted Zilpha Yost to executive producer, a new position in the advertising divsion which is headed by president David Altschul. Yost has been a senior producer at Vinton Studios since 1992, taking a leave of absence in 1995 to run the stop-motion studio in Los Angeles for Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS. When Burton chose to complete the film in CGI, Yost returned to Vinton, bringing some of the creative artists who had been doing stop-motion animation on MARS ATTACKS with her. Yost will work very closely with Rich Durkin, executive producer in Vinton's New York office. "Zilpha is a perfect choice," Durkin said. "Her work over the years, and particularly on M&M's, has given her a depth of insight into characterization and storytelling that is rare in this business."