Los Angeles – With the increasing worldwide success of its children’s properties, including DINOSAUR TRAIN, PAJANIMALS and SID THE SCIENCE KID, and the expansion of its third party licensing and distribution label, HIP (Henson Independent Properties) which includes The ANNOYING ORANGE, The Jim Henson Company’s Global Distribution division continues to expand both its business and its team. Today, Richard Goldsmith, EVP of Global Distribution for The Jim Henson Company, announced the promotion of Andrew Thomas to Director of Global Distribution, Sales & Marketing, and the appointments of Karen Lee Arbeeny to the newly formed position of Executive Director, Distribution Business Affairs; Casie Shapiro as Director, Global Distribution, Sales, and Adam Lucas as the Distribution Coordinator. All will report to Goldsmith. Arbeeny will also report to the Company’s General Counsel.
“Over the last several years, we have built a distribution business that services clients in over 200 countries on multiple media platforms around the globe. We are now distributing other companies’ series internationally under our HIP banner, and we continue to build relationships with programmers spanning traditional broadcast, DVD, digital, online and mobile,” said Goldsmith. “Additionally, as a result of The Jim Henson Company’s aggressive initiative to rollout our preschool properties to the international marketplace, we have been able to expand our team and its focus, generating new opportunities for our original productions, as well as for our HIP properties.”
In his new role as Director of Global Distribution, Sales & Marketing, Andrew Thomas will focus on television sales worldwide and will support the Company’s clients in the TV, DVD and distribution sectors by devising marketing and promotional campaigns. Thomas, who previously served as Manager, Global Distribution, Sales & Marketing, has been with The Jim Henson Company for nearly three years, working on a variety of distribution-related sales and marketing initiatives. Prior to joining the Company, he was a business development consultant at Rehab Entertainment and Consulting, Inc.
As Executive Director, Distribution Business Affairs, Karen Lee Arbeeny is responsible for managing contracts and media rights within the global distribution group. Prior to joining The Jim Henson Company, she served as Vice President, Administration in Digital Media at NBC Universal. From 2001 to 2011, Arbeeny worked at Comcast International Media Group, most recently serving as Vice President of Business Operations. Previously, Arbeeny was a contract manager for third party acquisitions for Saban/Fox Family Worldwide.
Casie Shapiro joins The Jim Henson Company as Director, Global Distribution, Sales, focusing on home entertainment and digital distribution sales worldwide. Previously, she served as Manager, Domestic Pay-Per-View, Video-on-Demand and Digital Sales at Paramount Pictures’ Home Media Distribution division, where she also held prior positions, including Sales Coordinator and Manager for The Americas, during her five-year tenure at the studio.
Adam Lucas also joins The Jim Henson Company’s distribution team as Distribution Coordinator, supporting the company’s distribution clients and managing its rights database. Lucas comes to the company from Comcast International Media Group (which later became part of NBC Universal); where he held the post of Technical Lead.
Source: The Jim Henson Company