MarVista Makes Handful of Appointments in Scripted Series Push

LOS ANGELES: MarVista Entertainment has hired two new executives for its production and development department, added a member to the company's global sales team, and made a top-level promotion.

Michael McGahey has become the VP of development and production for scripted series. In his newly created role, he will work under Robyn Snyder, the executive VP of production and development. He will be responsible for managing MarVista's ongoing expansion into live-action scripted programming for domestic and international co-productions. He previously served as the VP of development for Disney Television Animation.

Also joining the company is HBO's Margret Huddleston, who has been named creative executive. She is charged with supervising the physical production of MarVista's 2014 independent film slate.

Christopher Sanda has come on board as the company's new director of international sales. He will report to Vanessa Shapiro, the executive VP of sales. He is expected to act as the prime sales/licensing contact for MarVista's clients in Scandinavia, Benelux, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Poland, CIS and ancillary markets. Before this appointment, he was the director of international distribution at Summit Entertainment.

In addition, Sharon Bordas has been elevated from senior VP to executive VP of production and development. Her duties will include continuing to make female-skewed content for television and theatrical markets. She has been with the company for four years. Among her noteworthy credits are Escape from Polygamy and Sexting in Suburbia.

"Our market-driven development strategy—producing and acquiring content based on feedback directly from our buyers—is the foundation of our business, continues to distinguish our company in the global marketplace and, in essence, is the story behind our success as producers, production partners and distributors," noted Fernando Szew, the CEO of MarVista. "This success serves to attract the highest caliber individuals to the MarVista team. Our new executives bring the experience they amassed while working with some of the industry's biggest and most progressive companies, and we are very excited to be able to expand our team with the addition of these talented individuals."