Gaumont Hires for Animation & Family Division

Gaumont has added to its animation and family team in Europe with the hiring of Karen Vermeulen and Cyril Le Pesant.

Vermeulen, who will join in August, has been appointed to the role of senior VP of global co-production, financing and business development, based in Gaumont’s London offices. She most recently served as head of global content strategy and co-production in addition to managing director based in the U.K. office of Cloudco Entertainment.

At Gaumont, Vermeulen will be working closely with Terry Kalagian, senior VP of creative development for animation and family, and her team to handle funding models/partners for the current development slate and serve to identify new co-pro projects and future opportunities. Courtney Arumugam, VP of creative development, also based in London, will report to Vermeulen.

Le Pesant joined the company this month as the new head of animation and family at Gaumont Animation in Paris. Le Pesant will work together with the animation and family teams in the U.S. and U.K. across the sourcing of IP, co-productions, development and production with a primary focus on running the Paris based studio, which will report to him directly. Le Pesant most recently served as co-founder and CEO of Knightworks, a production, animation and creative studio based in Paris.

Nicolas Atlan, president of animation and family, to whom they will both report, said: “I can’t begin to express how thrilled we are to have both Karen & Cyril join the Gaumont team. I’ve known Karen for many years and I’ve always wanted to work with her, and Cyril’s energy and passion makes him a perfect fit for our team. Together they bring a new level of creative expertise and technical skills which will further add to the momentum Gaumont continues to build across Europe and around the world. Both will work closely with Terry Kalagian, our SVP of Creative Development, and her talented team.”

Vermeulen commented: “I am absolutely thrilled to join Nicolas at long last, and his amazingly talented team! I am very excited by the diverse development slate, and to be a part of putting together the jigsaw puzzle to drive more global co-productions.”

Le Pesant said: “I am very happy and proud to join Gaumont, the company whose Marguerite (Daisy) logo rocked my childhood. I am also delighted to work with Nicolas Atlan and Terry Kalagian and their entire team who have done an extraordinary job over the last four years. This is a very exciting time at Gaumont Animation & Family, and I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity. With so many projects already in production in addition to a robust development slate, we are on an incredible path.”