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BTHA welcomes

Kerri Atherton

The British Toy & Hobby Association (BTHA) has announced that Kerri Atherton has joined the association as head of public affairs.

Kerri was previously employed by BTHA as public affairs manager, but left at the end of 2018 to work with the London Mayor and his team. She is looking forward to returning to the toy industry and working at the association again, in this new post.

Kerri is based in London and can be contacted at kerri@btha.co.uk.

NEWS IN BRIEF...

● Winning Moves has welcomed Mohsin Khan to its UK sales team, where he will be responsible for developing and growing some of its biggest accounts. Mohsin brings a wealth of experience and knowledge, having worked at Flair in a similar role. ● Innovation First International (UK), the company responsible for the toy brand Hexbug, has recruited

Alison Ferguson as marketing manager. She will be responsible for marketing and PR activity across

Innovation First’s three brands - Hexbug, Vex Robotics and Rack Solutions - with a focus on driving consumer awareness of Hexbug toys. ● IMC Toys has promoted Lisa Cox from senior national account manager to the role of UK sales manager, and appointed Kieran Smith as national account manager.

Kieran was previously at MGA, and prior to that held sales roles at Melissa & Doug and Hasbro. ● Casdon Toys has appointed Kate Watson as UK national account manager. A familiar face in the toy industry, Kate has previously held positions with Schleich UK and Hasbro, and brings extensive experience to the role, where she will have responsibility for managing all national accounts for the brand. ● Toynamics UK & Ireland has named Mark Morgan as its new area sales manager for the south. He will handle sales for the Toynamics brand portfolio of

Hape, Skip Hop, Timio, DinosArt, Nebulous Stars and

Nanoblock across the infant toy category. He joins from University Games, where he was responsible for selling family board games, gifts, and puzzles.

Previously, Mark worked for Juratoys across the Janod,

Kaloo and Alex brands. ● Marvin’s Magic has appointed Bryce Vernon as ecommerce executive to support the company’s ecommerce plans. He formerly held roles at Baker Ross and Galt Toys.

University Games

strengthens sales team

Stephen Woodman Kim Steward Sally Irwin

University Games and The Lagoon Group have welcomed three regional accounts managers to their sales team.

Stephen Woodman, account manager for south London and the southeast, brings a wealth of toy knowledge, having spent many years in the industry at Professor Puzzle and Coiledspring Games and most recently heading up Recent Toys.

The new account manager for the north of London and the home counties is Kim Steward, who joins with a vast amount of sales expertise gained in the pharmaceutical industry.

Completing the trio is Sally Irwin, who is overseeing The Midlands area. She boasts an impressive portfolio of experience in both the gift and game industries, having previously worked at Carte Blanche and Wow Toys.

JAKKS Pacific names new board member

JAKKS Pacific has announced that Lori MacPherson has joined its board of directors.

Lori served as executive vice president, global product management for The Walt Disney Studios from 2010-2014, following her positions as executive vice president and general manager of the global Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment division, senior vice president and general manager of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment North America, and a variety of senior marketing and product management positions with The Walt Disney Company since 1991.

Stephen Berman, CEO of JAKKS Pacific, said: “Lori brings to us over two decades of experience in entertainment and consumer products, which dovetails perfectly with our hands-on, customer-focused company. We expect to benefit from her insights into broad segments of the customer base for our wide array of products.”

Obituary: Tony Strodder

By Malcolm Naish, founder of TnP

We are sad to report that Tony Strodder has passed away. Tony had so many friends in the toy trade. I first met him back in the sixties working with Stone & Lipman. He was the originator of the North v South annual cricket match and was a very creative toy man.

Tony’s family said: ‘‘In keeping with his wishes of a private and very simple David Bowiestyle funeral, we ask for your love and understanding at this very sad time. We will be in touch about a memorial. In the meantime, please take a look at www.braintumourresearch. org: this type of cruel cancer is massively under-researched and underfunded. God bless you all.’’