MUMBAI: Nelvana, leading international producers and distributors of children's programming and products, have announced the appointment of consumer products industry veteran Nancy Fowler as senior VP, worldwide licensing.
Fowler will be reporting to Nelvana executive VP of business development Doug Murphy and will oversee licensing, marketing and creative services teams in her new role.
"Nelvana has an exceptional reputation within the global licensing industry," said Fowler. "I'm genuinely proud to be joining the Nelvana team and contributing to the company's growing consumer products business."
Fowler brings more than 16 years of consumer products experience to Nelvana. Recently, as president of Worldwide Consumer Products for Burbank-based DIC Entertainment, Nancy oversaw the development of licensing programs for brands including Madeline, Trollz/The Original Trolls and the relaunch of American Greetings' Strawberry Shortcake franchise, which has reached over $1 billion at retail. While at DIC, Fowler directed a team that managed more than 700 licensees worldwide, and successfully completed the company's acquisition effort to obtain the global entertainment and licensing rights to McDonald's brands.
Fowler has earlier served as vice president of Worldwide Licensing for Viacom Consumer Products, the licensing arm of Paramount Pictures Corporation, where she was responsible for a variety of entertainment brands, including Star Trek, South Park, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Tomb Raider. Prior to her eight-year stint at Viacom, Fowler established the licensing division of Alliance Atlantis and was director of marketing for SEGA of Canada.
"Nelvana has made enormous strides these last three years, emerging as a world-class consumer products organization stewarding global brands such as Babar, Beyblade, Miss Spider and now The Backyardigans," commented Doug Murphy, "We are delighted to welcome Nancy back to Canada and very excited to add her talent and experience to our licensing team."
Nelvana has also announced several promotions in its licensing division. Mark Northwood, formerly VP of Licensing for North America, is now VP of licensing, the Americas. Previously manager,international licensing Lily Yan is upped to senior manager, international licensing. And former licensing coordinator Lisa Green has been promoted to account executive, licensing.
Nelvana's is owned by Corus Entertainment, a Canadian-based media and entertainment company. Corus is a market leader in both specialty TV and Radio. The company's other interests include music, television broadcasting and advertising services.