Category: People

Alliance Atlantis has promoted Jennifer Bennett to vice president, merchandising and licensing. Bennett will oversee the licensing of all Alliance Atlantis' television properties, including children's label, AAC KIDSTM. She has been with the company for the past seven years, most recently as director, merchandising and licensing. "Jennifer has been invaluable to Alliance Atlantis' merchandising and licensing initiatives over the past three years since joining the M&L team," said Ted Riley, president, Alliance Atlantis Television Distribution.

Warner Bros. Animation has announced that Jean MacCurdy has stepped down from her post as president and will be replaced by former Sony Family Entertainment Group president Sander Schwartz. MacCardy will become a creative consultant for the studio, working on developing animated and live-action children's productions. In 1979, she joined Warner Bros. Cartoons as director of animation programming and in 1982, was promoted to VP and general manager.

Walt Disney Co. Latin America has hired Marcos Rosset as managing director, Brazil. He will head all of the company's businesses in the territory, including the Portuguese language Disney Channel that debuts on April 5, 2001. For the past 15 years, Rosset served as managing director of CIC Video, a co-venture between Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures. There he oversaw all retail businesses, including interactive consumer products and rental/sell-through video.

Susan Armstrong has joined EyeballNYC as a designer. Previously, she served as an inferno* artist and 3D animator for Toronto-based TOPIX/Mad Dog. There she worked on commercials for Coca-Cola, Tylenol, Sega Playdium, as well as music videos for David Bowie, Bare Naked Ladies and Sheryl Crow, among others. In addition, Armstrong worked on such feature films as THE SWEET HEREAFTER and HARRIET THE SPY.

Scott Dougherty has been appointed executive producer of visual effects for Cinesite, Inc. Dougherty will be responsible for managing the creative and technological resources needed to complete visual effects projects. After freelancing as an art department assistant and production manager, Dougherty joined Cinesite in 1993 and has played various roles including visual effects coordinator, associate producer and producer. His filmography includes RED PLANET, AIR FORCE ONE, DEEP BLUE SEA, PRACTICAL MAGIC, SPACE JAM, OUTBREAK and dozens of other projects.

Visual effects/live-action director Simon D. Holden has signed with The Flux Group, a motion graphics, visual effects and live-action production house. Holden will focus on commercial work for Flux. His previous commercial work includes spots for Dodge, Pontiac, Bally Total Fitness and Warner Bros. Home Video. Recently, Holden has done F/X work on film and TV projects such as MOULIN ROUGE, CONTACT, DANTE'S PEAK, FACE/OFF, THE X-FILES and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. Flux president Maggie Magee said, "Simon is an exceptional effects director and supervisor.

The CFO of Viacom, Fredric Reynolds, has decided to step down from his post. Fredric served at Westinghouse Electric Corp. when they purchased CBS, subsequently overseeing the purchase of CBS by Viacom. Reynolds is leaving the post for personal reasons, but will continue working for the New York-based company in some fashion out of the California offices. He will remain CFO until a replacement can be found. A Viacom spokeswoman said, "He wants to spend more time with his family in California, and it wasn't possible for the CFO to be in California."

Nicolas Gorse has been appointed distribution director for France and French-speaking Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg for TBS Europe. Gorse will be responsible for the distribution of all three Turner channels, CNN International, Cartoon Network and TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Previously, Gorse served as development and marketing director of SOFIRAD. "Nicolas has an excellent knowledge of marketing and distribution, as well as of the various satellite platforms and their specific offerings in France.

Goodspeed & Associates, Inc. has promoted Patrick Bennett to the newly created position of design director. Formerly a designer with the company, Patrick will be responsible for the daily overseeing of all creative work. Before joining Goodspeed over a year ago, Patrick held a variety of creative positions in graphic design, Web design and consulting for several magazines and cultural institutions, such as ESQUIRE, VANITY FAIR and Dia Center for the Arts. "Patrick has proved an invaluable asset for our rapidly growing company," said agency owner Bill Goodspeed.