Disguise, Inc. — the costume division of JAKKS Pacific — is growing its leadership team in the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), with the hires of Tony Lewis and Lynda Morris to oversee expansion and recruitment efforts for an EMEA team of costume experts across sales, design, and marketing.
Meanwhile JAKKS EMEA managing director David Carscadden, who has been with the company for 12 years, will now lead both the Disguise and the JAKKS teams for EMEA. In overseeing both divisions, Carscadden will focus on strengthening distribution channels and retail partnerships for Disguise’s products as well as leveraging JAKKS’ expertise in role play and dress-up.
Carscadden’s U.K.-based teams will be led by Lewis for sales and marketing and Morris for design and development.
“We are excited to continue to expand our presence in EMEA,” said JAKKS Pacific EVP Dan Cooney. “An enhanced dress up and role play line is a natural complement to our strong toy portfolio.”
Lewis brings over 30 years of costume industry experience with companies like Christy’s, Amscan, and Character World. At Disguise, he will work with JAKKS to build and develop retailer and buyer relationships across Europe and expand the list of dress-up clients for the company. Lewis is in charge of forecasting, planning, and joint ventures as well as regional and local sales teams, building, and developing the customer and wider distribution base. He is currently recruiting a costume sales and development team for the U.K. and EMEA.
Morris holds decades of design and management experience in the adult and children apparel field, including seven years of experience with Halloween at Rubie’s. She will work alongside Lewis and JAKKS on forecasting, safety testing, and presenting concepts and styles to licensors and customers. Additionally, Morris will assemble a creative and development team in the U.K. to prepare for design this year and production in 2022. Morris’ team will be responsible for hundreds of styles for Disguise’s existing and new licenses.
“This year we have been focused on maximizing our existing licenses and building structure for new brand acquisitions to be announced soon. With the recent awards of some large licenses with a global scope, it made sense to hire in industry talent and start growing our team now”, said Disguise president and GM Tara Hefter. “With Tony and Lynda leading the business, we have the ground work ready to develop and expand into new regions and countries quickly. We can activate faster on new licenses and brands and bring these incredible new costumes and accessories to retail for all major dress up holidays in EMEA.”