As Genius Brands International continues to grow in all areas of business with the newly launched Kartoon Channel! and more content being developed and produced to fuel the distribution pipeline, the Company announced the appointment of former Corus Entertainment sales executive, Jessica Brinder, as Vice President of International Distribution.
In her new role, Brinder will oversee global content sales from Genius Brands’ catalog of children’s programming, including flagship properties, Rainbow Rangers and Llama Llama, along with the upcoming Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, starring Arnold Schwarzengger, and new content produced under the recently announced Stan Lee Universe banner. Lindsay Brown, who serves as Director of International Sales, will report to Brinder.
“This is an exciting time to be at Genius Brands as we continue to build our content portfolio, and I welcome Jessica to our team to help drive our content sales efforts around the world,” said Genius Brands’ Chairman & CEO Andy Heyward. “We now have 100% distribution of the Rainbow Rangers series in the Western Hemisphere and are expanding further internationally, as well as further product rollouts this year; our Llama Llama Netflix Original series is in season two with product on shelf; we have forged a new and important partnership with Alibaba group on our forthcoming Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; and we have created the Stan Lee Universe banner which will be generating a lot of new content over the next few years!”
“I am thrilled to work with Andy and the team at Genius Brands as we continue producing ‘content with a purpose’ for global distribution,” stated Brinder. “We have a diverse catalog of enriching and entertaining programming with new original content coming down the pipeline, and I look forward to working with our broadcast and platform partners worldwide to bring our unique offerings to young audiences around the world.”
Brinder joins Genius Brands from Kickstart Entertainment in Canada, where she served as Vice President of Business Development. She previously worked for over five years for Corus Entertainment, most recently as a Senior Sales Manager of Global Distribution at Nelvana, managing the distribution of content in key territories around the world and overseeing the strategic direction and team of the global VOD business. Brinder will be based in Toronto.