Canada’s Thunderbird elevates execs, Matthew Berkowitz named president

Thunderbird Entertainment Group has elevated Matthew Berkowitz to the role of president, among several other promotions at the Vancouver-based studio.

Matthew Berkowitz

The longtime Thunderbird exec will retain his existing role as chief creative officer of both Thunderbird and its in-house animation studio Atomic Cartoons.

In his expanded role, LA-based Berkowitz will oversee the development, production, distribution and acquisition of IP across kids and family, factual and scripted. The company said he will also be instrumental to its long-term growth plan, which will involve spearheading M&A initiatives, as well as expanding the IP opportunities for each of Thunderbird’s divisions.

The president role was formerly held by Jennifer Twiner McCarron, who remains CEO of both Thunderbird and Atomic Cartoons.

“Matthew has an exceptional creative eye for identifying and producing successful content. This, combined with his strategic vision for growth and ability to foster great partnerships has made him invaluable to our team. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked alongside Matt for the last five years and we are thrilled to promote him to president of Thunderbird,” said Twiner McCarron in a statement.

Elsewhere, the company made three promotions across its scripted and factual divisions: Lindsay Macadam was promoted from head of scripted development to senior VP, content and business development; Ed de Rivaz was upped from creative director to senior VP, development; and Tony Chung was elevated from director of finance to senior VP, finance and corporate affairs.

In addition, at Atomic Cartoons, Nadine Westerbarkey has been promoted from head of 2D animation to studio creative director, and Carl Upsdell has been elevated from series director to head of 2D animation. Atomic Cartoons also hired Andrew Egiziano as VP of production, Los Angeles.

Thunderbird said it currently has 27 productions underway (both service projects and owned IP) for a range of streamers and broadcasters including Netflix, Disney, Peacock, Apple, PBS, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Canadian pubcaster CBC.

In order to support the volume of series it is producing, Atomic Cartoons has established a current series team, which it said will provide “dedicated creative oversight at an executive level as projects transition from development into production.”

Brady Serwitz, who recently joined Thunderbird from Marvel Animation, will serve as director, current series, while Catie Carducci, who was a key member of the team that developed Thunderbird’s Last Kids on Earth franchise, will serve as manager, current series.

Earlier in the week, Thunderbird announced that Brian Paes-Braga, who has served as chairman of its board of directors since 2019, did not stand for reelection. Lead director Marni Wieshofer has been appointed as Thunderbird’s interim chair while it seeks a permanent replacement.