LAIKA Taps Former H-B Exec, Raises Travis Knight

LAIKA Inc. has made two new appointments to its management team. Former Lucasfilm and Hanna-Barbera exec Alan Keith has joined the studio as VP, Business Operations/CFO and Travis Knight has been promoted to VP, Animation.

Keith, who has more than 20 years of finance experience in both corporate and movie studio settings, will be responsible for leading the expansion of LAIKA's business operations as LAIKA continues to grow its pipeline of animated feature films, television commercials, music videos, broadcast graphics and short films.

"Alan's diverse set of business and financial skills are critical to LAIKA at this time in our company's growth," said President/CEO Dale Wahl. "He has excellent experience balancing creative and business perspectives and he will make a significant contribution to LAIKA's advancement in the animation and commercial production businesses," Wahl said.

Keith comes to LAIKA after two years as Corporate Finance Director at Genentech Inc. a biotech and life sciences companies. Prior to that, Keith held senior management roles in the entertainment industry for more than 18 years, most recently with Lucasfilm, as the corporate VP of Administration & Secretary for the company. In addition to his corporate responsibilities for Lucasfilm, Keith oversaw finance and business operations for Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, as well as administration for Lucasfilm Animation, the company's newest division established in Singapore. Keith joined Lucasfilm after four years as VP, Business Operations/Controller at Hanna-Barbera Inc. Before that, he was Chief Accounting Officer/Controller at Hanna-Barbera Ent. Co. Inc., where he oversaw the financial activities between joint venture partners Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. and the Apollo Investment Group. The alliance funded the buyout of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon library from Great American Ent. Co. Prior to that, Keith held respected tenures at Turner Ent. Co. and with Price Waterhouse.

In his role as VP of Animation, Knight will continue many of the responsibilities he has discharged as Head of Animation for the past two years. He continues as one of the Lead Animators on LAIKA Ent.'s CORALINE, the first stop-motion animated film to be originally produced in 3-D, to be released by Focus Features in 2008. This promotion formally recognizes his extensive influence across the entire LAIKA slate of films. He is a key member of the team responsible for property acquisitions, development and greenlighting and he also provides creative direction regarding the look and feel of LAIKA's portfolio of releases. With this promotion, his involvement in the business operations of the company will also deepen.

"Over the past two years Travis has played an increasingly active role in the studio's creative direction in his role as head of LAIKA's animation department," says Wahl. "His appointment as VP is a logical move for the studio and allows us to continue to benefit from his considerable creative talent and valued leadership skills."

Knight joined Vinton Studios (which was later re-named LAIKA, Inc.) in 1998. He started animating full time on THE PJS, primetime television's first ever stop-motion animated series, which Vinton produced with Imagine Ent. and Eddie Murphy Prods. The series won three Emmys in its run on Fox-TV. He also worked on the Vinton-produced animated series GARY & MIKE for UPN. He served as Supervising Animator on the award-winning CG short MOONGIRL, directed by Henry Selick. He has animated numerous commercials produced by LAIKA/house, for clients including Gateway, McDonald's, Nestle and Fox, amongst others.

In 2002, Travis took a seat on LAIKA's Board of Directors and since then has been increasingly involved with the business operations and creative direction of the company as it builds its production slate in both CG and stop-motion feature films and expands its commercial production activities.

For more information, visit www.laika.com.