Vice President, Licensing - Americas
Chorion Intellectual Properties
industry: Entertainment
function: Licensing
Chorion has appointed former Nickelodeon executive Robert Traub as Vice President Licensing Americas, with responsibility for all licensing and merchandising (L&M) activity in the U.S. He will report to Eric Karp, EVP Global Licensing and Merchandising.
In his new position, Traub will be responsible for all aspects of L&M campaigns for Chorion’s properties in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, including Mr. Men and Little Miss, The World of Eric Carle, Olivia, Paddington and Trucktown. He replaces Pamela Ferris who will continue to work with Chorion in a consultancy role.
Traub comes to Chorion after eight years at Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products where he oversaw campaigns for brands, such as Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has also served at Marvel Entertainment Group.
Director of Finance
CORE K12 Education
industry: Education
function: Finance
CORE K12 has appointed Debra Golub, who will have responsibility for Financial Accounting and Controls as well as establishing the K12 Division’s Financial Processes. Debra will be reporting to Steve Fan, Chief Operating Officer.
CORE Education & Consulting Solutions’ offerings include products and solutions in the areas of School Management Systems including Assessment Systems, Accountability Systems, Examination Management, and Performance Management. With CORE’s expansion into the United States and United Kingdom, CORE is positioned to establish itself as a significant player in the global education marketplace. CORE K12 provides a range of products and services to K-12 schools and school districts around the country to help primary and secondary school students and teachers measurably improve academic performance.
Debra joins CORE K12 with a broad range of financial skills from quantitative and statistical analysis, budgeting, accounting and forecasting to the design and implementation of new technologies and databases. From her early experience as a financial analyst at Thomson to roles of increasing responsibility at Scholastic, Fairchild Publications, Medizine Incorporated and CurtCo Media, Debra has consistently focused her efforts on profitability.
Debra Golub has a Bachelor of Science, Finance, from the State University of New York, College at Brockport, Brockport, NY.
General Manager
Newsweek Digital
industry: Consumer/ Digital Media/Online
function: General Management
We are delighted to announce the successful completion of our search for the General Manager, Newsweek Digital. Geoff Reiss will join Newsweek in the newly-created position of General Manager, Newsweek Digital. Reporting to Tom Ascheim, Newsweek’s Chief Executive Officer, Geoff will have responsibility for all things digital, including strategy, operations, technology, traffic development and design. “Geoff will be instrumental in helping us continue to transform Newsweek into a modern, multi-platform media company,” Ascheim said. Previously, Geoff was the CEO of Associated Content, since July 2007. Before that, he spent eight years at ESPN in a variety of executive roles, including Senior Vice President, Programming, Production and Operations for ESPN.com, Senior Vice President ESPN Original Content, Senior Vice President, ESPN Consumer Products and General Manager, ESPN Magazine. Before his ESPN career, Reiss was at Starwave/ESPN Internet Ventures for seven years as Senior Vice President, programming and production, Vice President and director of sports publishing.
Online President for the Primedia Enthusiast Media Group
Primedia
industry: B2B/Business Information/ Consumer
function: General Management
We are pleased to inform you that The Cheyenne Group has completed the search for the President, Primedia Enthusiast Media, Online. Greg Goff has been appointed President of Primedia Enthusiast Media Online. He will join the company with full P&L responsibility for leading the growth and development of the PEM Group’s online business. Greg is an accomplished general manager who, throughout his more than 20-year career, has successfully created and developed businesses for privately held Harmon Publishing, start-up Babycenter.com and the Knight Ridder Corporation. Besides his strategic and entrepreneurial skills, he brings to Primedia a direct knowledge of and strong experience with on-line special interest media businesses. Most recently, Greg was the General Manager for the Consumer Magazines & Target Publishing Division of Knight Ridder. He started his career in the early eighties in brand management at Procter & Gamble.
Director of Hard Copy Sales for Discovery Education
Discovery Communications Inc.
industry: B2B/Business Information/ Education/ Entertainment
We are pleased to inform you that The Cheyenne Group has completed the search for the Director, Hard Copy Sales, Discovery Education to be based in Silver Springs, Maryland. Discovery Education has announced that Dan Cavalli has been named Director, Hard Copy Sales. Dan will have responsibility for developing sales and marketing strategies and tactics and managing distribution across various sales channels. Dan comes to Discovery Education with over a decade of experience in sales and marketing in education technology. He was most recently Vice President of Knowledge Adventure’s School Division. Prior to that he served in a variety of strategic sales, marketing and business development roles with LeapFrog SchoolHouse, 7th Wave Consulting, The Learning Company and Dorling Kindersley Publishing
Head of Business Development
Bill Smith Studio
industry: Education
function: Business Development/Strategy
Executive Vice President, Head of Worldwide Licensing, Merchandising and Sponsorship
Chorion Intellectual Properties
industry: Entertainment
function: Licensing
Brand Director, Mr. Men
Chorion Intellectual Properties
industry: Entertainment
function: Marketing
We are very excited to inform you that The Cheyenne Group has completed the search for two Senior Vice President Brand Management positions for Chorion Silver Lining Inc.
Chorion has appointed Joan Blanski as Senior Vice President Brand Management for Noddy and Cheryl Gotthelf as Senior Vice President Brand Management for Mr. Men and Little Miss. They both join Chorion’s new Global Brand Strategy team and will be based in the New York office.
Joan Blanski is a dynamic corporate executive with an MBA in Marketing Management & Strategic Planning. She spent the early years of her career at Pepsi North America where she held key marketing and sales roles including Group Manager, Retail Sales and Marketing Strategy. After Pepsi, Joan has held several important brand marketing roles including Vice-President Marketing CBS/Fox Video, Senior VP Marketing at Golden Books and VP Marketing with Lifetime Television. Her primary focus will be on creating new brand development strategies for Noddy in the US and Japan but will also be developing new line extensions and retail strategies in Europe.
Cheryl Gotthelf is a gifted children’s media executive who is an experienced expert at launching major new children’s brands. Her unique skill set spans trade and consumer marketing and public relations, station relations, research, child development and education. She began her career at ABC as Children’s Editor before working at Sesame Workshop as VP of School Services. She then joined Scholastic Entertainment as Vice President, Special TV Projects where she launched Scholastic’s first children’s TV series, The Magic School Bus. Next, as Vice President, Marketing and Public Affairs, Cheryl launched Noggin the first 24/7 commercial free children’s digital network. She then returned to Scholastic as Vice President, Marketing and TV/Broadcast Relations where she launched Clifford the Big Red Dog, revitalizing a 40-year old property and helped build it into a $700 million franchise. That was followed by the successful launch of Maya and Miguel and Clifford’s Puppy Days. Cheryl will be working closely with Chorion’s Creative, Production and Licensing teams around the world to build Mr. Men and Little Miss into a major global brand.
Senior Vice President, Business Diversification
Fremantle Media Limited
industry: Entertainment
function: Business Development/Strategy
Vice President Sales for Steck-Vaughn and Rigby, Harcourt Achieve
Harcourt Education
industry: Education
function: Sales
The Cheyenne Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Randy Pennington to the position of Senior Vice President of Sales for Rigby/Steck Vaughn, Harcourt Achieve, a division of Harcourt Education. He will report to Joel Zucker, Chief Operating Officer of Harcourt Achieve. Most recently, Randy held the role of Senior Vice President of Pearson Learning Group, a division of Pearson Education that specializes in PreK-12 supplemental programs. Prior to Pearson, Randy held senior positions with Compass Learning, Edpoint, Computer Curriculum Corporation and Chancery Software. Before this he worked at Apple Computer in sales and then as Director K-12 Marketing. Randy began his career in education as a physics teacher, before becoming a High School Principal. He was an early adopter and advocate for educational technology and served as Director of Educational Technology, Georgia Department of Education. Randy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Science Education & Physics from Valdosta State University and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Georgia State University.
Chief Executive Officer, Harcourt Assesments
Harcourt Education
industry: Education
function: General Management
Michael Hansen has been appointed President and CEO of Harcourt Education’s San Antonio-based testing unit, Harcourt Assessment. Mr. Hansen will report to Harcourt Education Global CEO, Pat Tierney and will join Harcourt on August 14, 2006.Mr. Hansen most recently served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development for Bertelsmann AG, where he led a dramatic turn-around in performance and profitability for the company's lowest-performing business units. Previously he served as Senior Vice President, International Operations for Proxicom, a media and service company, which he helped transform from a start-up business to a profitable, professionally managed service firm. Prior to that, he was Vice President & Director, Co-chairman: e-business & Media Practice for The Boston Consulting Group, where he built the firm's most successful global business line in a two year period.
Vice President, Human Resources North America
The Economist Group
industry: Consumer
function: Human Resources
North American General Manager - CFO Group
The Economist Group
industry: B2B/Business Information
function: General Management
We are pleased to inform you that The Cheyenne Group has completed the search for the General Manager, North America – CFO Group for The Economist Group to be based in New York City, NY. The Economist Group has announced that Frank Quigley has been named the General Manager, North America – CFO Group. Frank will lead the CFO brand and businesses in North America, which include the magazine CFO, the cfo.com website and CFO Enterprises (conferences & tradeshows and research services). Frank comes to The Economist Group with vast experience in B2B and vertical market publishing and information services. He has served in senior executive roles at significant media companies, such as Thomson Media, Ziff-Davis Publishing and The Washington Post/Newsweek. Most recently, Frank was President of the Securities Group at SourceMedia.
