Nelvana ceo walks

After nearly 32 years at the helm of Canadian animation studio Nelvana, ceo and co-founder Michael Hirsh has tendered his resignation.

It’s a move that comes on the heels of unfavourable financial results for both Corus, Nelvana's parent company, and Nelvana itself, the linchpin of Corus' content division.

Citing {structural changes in the production and distribution industry throughout this past year,{ Corus has announced that it intends to scale down spending on Nelvana, dropping the expected number of produced episodes to 150 in 2003, down from 252 episodes produced in 2002.

Hirsh's departure also follows in the wake of fellow Nelvana co-founders Patrick Loubert and Clive Smith’s resignations last year. Loubert resigned to form his own independent production company, while Smith left to pursue {personal projects and interests{.

Hirsh will not stray too far from the Nelvana fold, having decided to remain on as an advisor. {I plan to spend my time building even stronger rapport with our customers, developing new animated series… and helping to implement a plan to meet the challenges presented by the recent structural changes in our industry,{ said Hirsh.

A successor for Hirsh has not yet been named, however in a statement released yesterday, Corus noted that it expects to announce executive appointments in the coming weeks.