Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products Announce Key International Positions

Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products Announce Key International Positions

Jim Davey Named Senior Vice President, Global Consumer Products Marketing and Planning

Tanya Haider Appointed Vice President, Nickelodeon & Viacom International Consumer Products

Sherice Guillory-Torres and Hal Snik Shift Responsibilities within Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products and are Named Vice President, Hard Goods, and Vice President, Soft Goods, Respectively

New Roles Will Lead to Greater Global Presence of Viacom Properties Worldwide

NEW YORK, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Leigh Anne Brodsky, President of Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products, today announced plans to further leverage and grow Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products internationally with the creation of two new positions and several executives gaining new responsibilities.

Jim Davey has been named Senior Vice President, Global Consumer Products Marketing and Planning. Tanya Haider has been appointed Vice President, Nickelodeon & Viacom International Consumer Products. The positions have been created to bring global planning and execution to key franchises for Nickelodeon and Viacom.

"Jim Davey and Tanya Haider have been instrumental in developing and growing Nickelodeon's domestic licensing and merchandising business into a $4 billion annual retail business and they will be integral in taking our brands to new heights internationally," said Brodsky. "The focus of these two individuals will be to continue the extension of our popular brands to ensure that we are everywhere our audiences are."

Formerly Vice President Toys and Marketing, Nickelodeon, Consumer Products, Davey's role will change to assume global marketing responsibilities for Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products. He will be instrumental in planning for Nickelodeon's vast portfolio of properties, including SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer, as well as Paramount's Star Trek, Comedy Central's South Park, MTV's international licensing and select Spike TV properties.

Prior to joining Nickelodeon, Davey served as Director of Global Marketing for Polaroid's youth brands and was responsible for the launch of Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera targeted to tweens and teens. Previously, he rose through the brand management ranks at LEGO Systems, Inc. where he managed a wide range of LEGO product lines for preschoolers, kids, tweens, and teens. Davey received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College and earned his M.B.A. from the FW Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Tanya Haider was formerly Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, for Nickelodeon Networks. In her new role, she is charged with growing the Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products businesses and brands internationally and will oversee businesses in Asia, Canada, Europe and Latin America. Haider will also be responsible for driving the growth of MTV international licensing and developing the Paramount library of properties as well as future Paramount movie licensing internationally.

In her previous role in Nickelodeon's strategy group, Haider worked closely with Nickelodeon Consumer Products and was instrumental in the launch of everGirl, the creation of Nick Records and the renewal of Nick's videogame license with THQ. Prior to Nickelodeon, Haider spent five years as an international management consultant with both Corporate Decisions Inc. and Mercer Management Consulting. She holds an undergraduate degree in international relations from Mount Holyoke College and received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

As a result of the new strategy, several other executives have gained new responsibilities within Nickelodeon's Consumer Products department.

Sherice Guillory-Torres, formerly Vice President, Packaged Goods, Home and Gift, will become Vice President, Hard Goods for Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products. Harald (Hal) Snik, formerly Vice President, Apparel, Accessories, Stationery, Activities and Social Expressions, will become Vice President, Soft Goods.

As Vice President, Hard Goods, Guillory-Torres will oversee the sales and marketing of the toy, collectible, packaged goods, stationery and social expression categories. Before her promotion to Vice President in March 2003, Guillory-Torres spearheaded the re-launch of Nickelodeon's consumer electronics division as Director, Media Products, and successfully managed the network's worldwide interactive and home video business to over $700 million in retail sales in 2002.

Before joining Nickelodeon, Guillory-Torres was a consultant with Deloitte Consulting. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

In his new role, Snik will oversee the network's multi-million apparel, home and accessories businesses. A seasoned apparel industry executive, Snik formulated a tiered retail strategy which has been embraced by the licensing industry and was awarded "License of the Year" by two industry groups for apparel management of the Blue's Clues franchise.

Prior to joining Nickelodeon, Snik worked for Kids "R" Us, serving in a variety of clothing and accessory buying positions before being named senior buyer of the company's renowned accessories/sleepwear/basics/novelties division. There he formulated and executed an aggressive promotional strategy for basic items which resulted in an increase in market share without an erosion of margin. He started his career with Jordan Marsh (now Macy's) in Boston, where he graduated from the prestigious retail-training program before becoming a buyer in the children's area.

Snik received a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University School of Management where he graduated magna cum laude.

Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products is a part of Nickelodeon Enterprises, the ancillary business unit of Nickelodeon Networks. It is responsible for licensing Nickelodeon brands and characters as well as the properties of Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, Spike TV and MTV (International), as well as some non-Viacom properties. Nickelodeon Enterprises is active in all ancillary markets, including merchandise licensing, home video, interactive software, electronic media, online, wireless, book and magazine publishing, music, live tour and stage shows, theme parks and themed hotel venues. Nickelodeon Enterprises manages the largest TV-based licensing business in the world with $4 billion in retail sales. Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures and Spike TV are trademarks of Viacom International, Inc.


Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Sara Stern Levin of Nickelodeon, +1-212-846-8670,
Sara.levin@nick.com

Web site: http://www.nick.com/


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