Sesame Workshop picks Dunn’s successors

Sesame Workshop has named the two executives who will succeed Jeffrey D Dunn as president and CEO of the non-profit educational and media organisation behind Sesame Street.

Steve Youngwood

The Sesame Workshop board has elected Steve Youngwood as the sixth CEO of Sesame Workshop, while Sherrie Westin has been chosen as president of Sesame Workshop.

Dunn will retire as CEO on January 1 and take up the new position of executive chairman of Sesame Workshop until July 2021.

The exec, who has served as CEO since 2014, will advise Youngwood, Westin and the board of trustees during this six-month transition period. He will retire from Sesame Workshop at the end of its current fiscal year, on June 30.

Youngwood currently serves as Sesame Workshop’s chief operating officer and president of its media and education division.

Sherrie Westin

Since 2015, he has led the expansion of organisation’s media business from being a single-show producer to a broad-based production company, via partnerships with PBS, HBO Max, Apple, CNN, YouTube and others.

Projects include Sesame Street, Esme & Roy, The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, Helpsters, Ghostwriter and Mecha Builders.

Westin currently serves as president of Sesame Workshop’s social impact and philanthropy division. Over the past six years, she has delivered over US$300m in grants and donations to serve the most vulnerable children around the world.

“Jeff Dunn has been an exceptional leader of Sesame Workshop, leading us through challenging times and leaving us stronger than we’ve ever been. I am confident that Steve and Sherrie are the right team to carry us into the future and continue to deliver on our mission,” said Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founder and Lifetime Honorary Trustee of Sesame Workshop.