New CEO & COO for BAFTA New York

NEW YORK: The New York chapter of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has appointed Julie La'Bassiere as CEO and Lisa Harrison as chief operating officer, effective June 1.

La'Bassiere has served as a top-level marketing exec for a variety of distributors, brands, content creators and film festivals. She has worked with such companies as Fox Searchlight, IFC, Comcast, iTunes, Hulu, Time Warner, Sundance, Entertainment Weekly and FilmBuff. Most recently, she founded Tall Bird Marketing and Strategy, where she created and managed brand and product development and marketing strategies for filmmakers and organizations.

In her newly created position, Harrison will handle the day-to-day operations of BAFTA New York, including supervising its program of screenings and Q&As. She is a BAFTA New York board member and co-chair of the Screening Committee. She spent two decades working for BBC Worldwide, most recently as the company's operations director.

Christina Thomas, who has been with BAFTA New York for 20 years, is resigning as CEO to take on the newly created role of development consultant. In that post, she will be charged with expanding funding resources by managing and implementing new approaches to fundraising that will increase revenues to support the nonprofit organization's strategic direction.

La'Bassiere said: "I am thrilled to be joining the BAFTA New York team and hope to continue the great work that has already been done to promote and support British talent in film and television in the greatest city in the world."

Harrison noted: "BAFTA New York is thriving and I'm looking forward to joining the management team at this exciting time for the organization."

Charles Tremayne, the chairman of BAFTA New York, added: "Christina Thomas is a hard act to follow, but we believe we have found the perfect person to take BAFTA New York to the next stage. Julie La'Bassiere is British and has worked extensively with the film industry on both sides of the pond. Her enthusiasm and energy will allow us to broaden and develop our membership, serve them with better events, and provide long term growth at a time when the creative communities in Britain and America are becoming more collaborative than ever before. We are delighted that Lisa Harrison will be joining the team full time as well. Her outstanding stewardship of our film screenings, alongside her organizational skills and experience, means that BAFTA is set to become bigger and more relevant in New York than ever before."