ZAG Hires VP of North America Retail Development

The animation studio ZAG has appointed Gaye Dean, a 30-plus year veteran of Target Corporation, as VP of North America retail development.

Dean will manage strategic relationships across retail throughout North America for the roster of properties under the ZAG Heroez label, an umbrella brand franchise that brings together the superheroes from ZAG’s animated properties. These include Miraculous—Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir and Ghostforce.

Dean will help further ZAG’s mission in building best-in-class licensed programs—which are spearheaded by Julian Zag, executive VP of global operations and head of consumer products—supporting licensees with product placement and promotion.

Dean reports to Lisa K. Foster, senior VP of licensing for North America.

“Gaye is an accomplished retail marketing leader and relationship builder with expertise in the entertainment brand marketing and licensing sector, and she brings those skills to her role at ZAG,” commented Foster. “We now have over 100 licensing partners on board in the U.S. for Miraculous, with the lion’s share of new products launching in 2023 and 2024, and we can’t wait to make them available for our fans! We are also currently presenting Ghostforce to our licensees and retailers with toys from ZAG Play and Playmates launching in 2024. ZAG has a strong pipeline of programming in the works, including Melody, which is in preproduction, that we want to share news about with our partners.”

“With the outstanding success of their flagship brand, Miraculous, the ZAG name has become synonymous with providing empowering, engaging and high-quality content and products to fans across the globe,” added Dean. “I am naturally delighted to join ZAG’s team, working closely with Lisa to ensure that we have retail placement with strong visibility for ZAG’s brands across mass-market, mid-tier, specialty, online and independents.”