Michael R. Polis Joins W!LDBRAIN as Chief Marketing Officer

Michael R. Polis Joins W!LDBRAIN as Chief Marketing Officer

Seasoned Executive Brings Extensive Experience in Building Celebrated Brands and Growing Revenues

SAN FRANCISCO, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Award-winning production studio W!LDBRAIN announces today that Michael R. Polis has been named to the newly created position of Chief Marketing Officer. With nearly twenty years of proven expertise in marketing, licensing and product development in all media, Mr. Polis has managed some of the world's most celebrated brands. Additionally, he has produced acclaimed original content for film, television and the internet. Polis will be part of the management team based in the studio's Los Angeles office and will report directly to the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Charles Rivkin.

As Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Polis will work closely with the Executive Producers and creative drivers of W!LDBRAIN's highly-anticipated children's series Yo Gabba Gabba! to further establish and build the brand. He will also manage W!LDBRAIN's corporate brand identity and key partner relationships.

Named one of License! magazine's "40 Under 40" Outstanding Executives, Mr. Polis most recently served as Senior Vice President Marketing Worldwide of The Jim Henson Company, driving all strategic marketing initiatives for the entire Henson library on a global basis. Properties included The Muppets, Fraggle Rock and Labyrinth. At Henson, he concurrently developed and produced content for the web and the DVD marketplace, including the acclaimed feature films Mirror Mask and Kermit's Swamp Years -- for which he received an Emmy nomination as Executive Producer. Previously, Polis was Executive Director of Marketing at Universal Home Entertainment, where he implemented a corporate branding strategy and managed marketing of Universal Studios' DVD/video sell- through catalog and new releases, including E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time series. In this role, he pioneered the first feature film in American Sign Language on video and also established cross-promotions with such companies as Burger King, The Pillsbury Company and Hasbro. Mr. Polis also served in new product development and promotions for Post Cereals and the Maxwell House Coffee Company while at Kraft Foods.

Polis is a member of the New Media Group of the Producer's Guild of America. He is also a member of the Executive Committee, Children's Programming Peer Group of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He holds an M.B.A. from Northeastern University.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Rivkin said, "I've been fortunate to work with Michael in the past and I'm thrilled that he will be joining the W!LDBRAIN team." Added Rivkin, "Michael is recognized in the industry as a marketing innovator. He is the rare executive who brings creativity to the process and builds evergreen brands with out-of-the-box thinking and entrepreneurship."

Mr. Polis stated, "I'm delighted to join such a strong executive group at W!LDBRAIN and look forward to working with such a remarkably talented and creative team. It's fantastic to be associated with a company that is uniquely positioned to deliver terrific results due to its incredibly innovative content."

About W!LDBRAIN:

Founded in 1994, W!LDBRAIN (http://www.wildbrain.com/) is an award-winning entertainment company that develops and produces unique and compelling content across the media spectrum. Powered by its distinctive pool of talented animators and directors and renowned for blending traditional animation methods with state-of-the-art computer graphics, the studio and its artists have consistently won top industry awards. In film, W!LDBRAIN has garnered numerous awards for its computer graphics short film Hubert's Brain and currently has a number of film projects in development. In television, the studio has produced an exceptional slate of original work, including the top- rated and acclaimed animated series Higglytown Heroes airing on Disney Channel and the upcoming Nick Jr. series Yo Gabba Gabba!. One of the nation's foremost producers of animated commercials, W!LDBRAIN has won the industry's most prestigious awards for their commercial spots -- reinvigorating classic brands and developing cutting-edge spots for such leading companies as The Coca-Cola Company, Honda, Kraft and Nike. W!LDBRAIN additionally creates and distributes collectible merchandise through its subsidiary Kidrobot, a premier retailer of limited-edition art toys, apparel and accessories, with stores located in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Contact:

Lisa Rose
Director of Public Relations and Marketing
W!LDBRAIN
415-216-2048
lrose@wildbrain.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: W!LDBRAIN

CONTACT: Lisa Rose, Director of Public Relations and Marketing of
W!LDBRAIN, +1-415-216-2048, lrose@wildbrain.com

Web site:

http://www.wildbrain.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: A high resolution photo of Michael R. Polis is available upon request.

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