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WildBrain shakes up distribution team

Canada-based children’s content giant WildBrain has restructured its distribution team following the recent departure of Lisa Lee and Jerry Diaz.

Caroline Tyre

Caroline Tyre will join the company in Toronto on September 21 in the new position of VP, global sales and rights strategy, overseeing content distribution in the US, UK and pan-European markets.

These were previously managed by Diaz, who left the company last month having joined the firm (fka DHX Media) in 2017.

Twenty-year industry veteran Tyre, who she spent five years as director of programming at Teletoon in Canada, will also be responsible for leading WildBrain’s international sales team outside of China and will oversee the company’s commercial content strategy.

The former Genius Brands International, Entertainment One and Spin Master exec also had a stint with DHX, then known as Decode, between 1997 and 2001. She will work with and report to Deirdre Brennan, executive VP for content partnerships.

As part of the new structure, WildBrain has also created a new role for its VP of rights strategy Lara Ilie, who will take the title of VP, revenue share and transactional.

In her newly created role, Ilie will be responsible for expanding WildBrain’s VoD strategy and emerging revenue streams, including revenue-share and transactional partnerships.

Ilie will also contribute audience, platform and IP insights and analysis into overall strategy for multiple business units across the company. Also based in Toronto, Ilie will report to Brennan.

Lara Ilie

Meanwhile, Jianbo Wei, WildBrain’s MD for China, will continue to represent WildBrain’s content and licensing in the country and is building up a team to grow its business there after Lee, formerly sales manager for WildBrain in China, left the company last month.

The rejig will also see Rebecca Lugo, sales manager for Latin America, Brazil, US Hispanic and in-flight, added Spain and Italy to her territories, while Darcee McCartney, sales manager in CEE, Russia/CIS, MENA, Africa, Portugal, Turkey and Greece, will add Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Director of European sales Wiebke Hoefer will include Ireland in her remit. Lugo, McCartney and Hoefer report to Tyre.

Brennan said: “Caroline joins at a pivotal time for both our industry and the company. She is a strong, client-focused leader combining deep experience with a strategic sensibility. We see tremendous opportunity for rights curation across the landscape of distribution channels and are delighted to welcome her as part of our integrated team.”

WildBrain holds around 13,000 half-hours of filmed entertainment in its library and is home to brands such as as Peanuts, Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake, Caillou, Inspector Gadget and Degrassi.

The company, then known as DHX Media, underwent a major restructure following a strategic review in 2018, which resulted in last year’s rebrand and management shake-up.

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