BEVERLY HILLS: As the company grows\u00a0its worldwide licensing, merchandising and retail business, Genius Brands International (GBI) has promoted Stone Newman and tapped industry veteran Jo Kavanagh-Payne.<\/p>\n
In his newly expanded role as president of global consumer products for worldwide content sales and marketing, Newman will take on oversight of the company\u2019s global content distribution business for its catalog of animated properties. This includes\u00a0SpacePOP<\/em>, Llama Llama<\/em>, Baby Genius<\/em>, Secret Millionaires Club<\/em> and Thomas Edison\u2019s Secret Lab<\/em>, as well as an all-new preschool property currently in development.<\/p>\n Newman, who joined GBI in 2014 as president of global consumer products, will also manage the worldwide rollout of the adult animated series Stan Lee\u2019s Cosmic Crusaders<\/em>. He will continue to oversee and manage all of GBI\u2019s licensing, merchandising, retail and marketing efforts. This includes appointing and managing the company\u2019s growing team of leading licensing agencies in key markets around the world.<\/p>\n Additionally, GBI has named Jo Kavanagh-Payne to the post of senior VP of global distribution, leading the company\u2019s worldwide content sales efforts. Kavanagh-Payne will drive GBI\u2019s distribution business, identifying potential co-production partners and advising on the development of new and acquired properties for international and domestic distribution. In addition to her role at GBI, Kavanagh-Payne will continue to serve as CEO of Foothill Entertainment, which she founded with her husband, Gregory Payne, in 2000.<\/p>\n \u201cStone has been instrumental in driving GBI\u2019s growth through unique and strategic initiatives, including pioneering the digital distribution strategy for the recent successful launch of SpacePOP<\/em>,\u201d said GBI\u2019s chairman and CEO, Andy Heyward. \u201cHis relationships, experience and knowledge of the global marketplace have been and continue to be tremendously beneficial, and I look forward to his contributions in realizing the goals of both maximizing the opportunities for our myriad brands and multiplying the properties under GBI\u2019s umbrella. Jo will also be a tremendous asset in meeting these objectives, and we are thrilled to welcome her to the GBI executive team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese past two years have been an exciting whirlwind of opportunities as we\u2019ve introduced GBI\u2019s \u2018content with a purpose\u2019 concept through fresh, appealing properties to the worldwide licensing, merchandising and retailing communities,\u201d noted\u00a0Newman. \u201cI am very enthusiastic about what we can accomplish in the months and years ahead and look forward to working with Jo in executing Andy\u2019s vision for GBI\u2019s long-term growth and continued development.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very proud to be representing GBI\u2019s content catalog in the worldwide marketplace,\u201d added\u00a0Kavanagh-Payne. \u201cI\u2019m impressed with the company\u2019s efforts in developing entertaining programming that inspires and ignites the minds of its young viewers and am very eager to work with Stone on expanding the roster of distribution partners for each of these engaging properties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BEVERLY HILLS: As the company grows its worldwide licensing, merchandising and retail business, Genius Brands International (GBI) has promoted Stone Newman and tapped industry veteran Jo Kavanagh-Payne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":477,"featured_media":10705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1503,1725,1726],"class_list":["post-10704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-genius-brands-international","tag-jo-kavanagh-payne","tag-stone-newman","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n