Industry Moves

Ken Goodisson joins Maxx Group as commercial director, EMEA

Maxx Group has appointed toy industry veteran Ken Goodisson as its commercial director, EMEA. In this newly created role, Ken is responsible for leading the sales and marketing functions for YuMe Brands in EMEA with an emphasis on the company’s toy business. The role will oversee the maintenance and expansion of sales efforts into all EMEA distribution channels, including DTR, distributor sales, and eCommerce, to achieve the company’s goals for toy growth and overall revenue.

Ken joins the maker of Stranger Things Upside Down Capsules from Bandai UK, where he served as head of Marketing. He has over 24 years experience in the toy industry as a commercial marketeer in EMEA, working with industry leaders Jakks Pacific, Hasbro and Vivid Imaginations (where he met his wife).

“Ken is an experienced toy industry sales and marketing talent, with deep experience at some of the top global toy companies,” said Michael Kwan, Maxx Group CEO. “His leadership, combined with our out-of-the-box creative, speed to market approach, and the rights we’ve secured from top licensors, including Disney, Hasbro, Netflix, Crunchy Roll, Nickelodeon and others, combine all the ingredients necessary to reach our ambitious revenue targets for 2022 and beyond.”

“Whilst most recently working on consultancy roles at Golden Bear and Bandai, Maxx Group offered an outstanding commercial director role no one could turn down,” commented Ken. “YuMe Toys is set for tremendous growth through IP development, licence acquisition and team expansion. I am proud to be part of this great team.”

Graham Gardiner promoted to commercial director at Rubies

As part of its renewed strategy and continued business reinvigoration, Rubies is proud to announce that Graham Gardiner, a long-term and well-respected employee of the company, has been promoted to commercial director for the UK, Central and Northern Europe.

Since joining Rubies in 2006, Graham has been pivotal for business growth, retail relationship management and sales across the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, CIS and Asia. He is also responsible for warehousing expansions and B2B commercial opportunities.

With over thirty years of experience in the international toy industry and licensing, Graham has worked for some of the biggest names in the market including Hasbro, Mattel and Kids2. His skills and responsibilities range from European Domestic to FOB business.

Mike O’Connell, managing director at Rubies, commented: “Commercially, Rubies couldn’t be in better hands. With the combination of over 30 years’ experience in the industry and 16 at Rubies, Graham understands the company direction and 365 business plans thoroughly. A natural evolution from his existing role as general manager EMEA, the role of commercial director will be the driving force behind Rubies’ new forward-thinking vision whilst spearheading new trade initiatives.”

Moonbug welcomes Helen Genia & Janice Lam

Helen Genia

Janice Lam

Moonbug Entertainment has continued the expansion of its Licensing and Merchandising team with two new senior appointments.

Helen Genia has been appointed Global Hardlines director, Consumer Products for Moonbug’s London office, while Janice Lam will undertake the same role based in New York. Each will manage a portfolio of hardlines licensees in the UK and US respectively.

In her newly created role, Helen will be responsible for overseeing all regional and global EMEA based partners, as well as identifying and driving new opportunities, working across all Moonbug properties, including hit brands such as CoComelon, Blippi and Little Baby Bum.

Helen has extensive experience in the lifestyle, entertainment and toy sectors and prior to Moonbug worked at Mattel for eight years, most recently as head of Licensing UK, Europe, Middle East & Russia and Hardlines EMEA. Prior to Mattel, she was at Hasbro Europe for over 18 years.

She said: “I am extremely excited to be joining such an innovative company at the forefront of the children’s entertainment sector. I am looking forward to working with the team and our partners to create high quality, innovative and relevant products that will allow children across the globe to interact with their favourite characters and expand their imagination.”

Janice Lam will be responsible for managing global master toy and hardlines licensing partners, predominantly based out of North America, as well as identifying and driving new opportunities. She joins from eOne where, after the company was acquired by Hasbro in 2019, she was appointed senior director, Licensing. In previous roles, Janice held key licensing executive posts at the BBC, Zodiak and Chorion.

Duncan Tate, Global head of Hardlines, Consumer Products at Moonbug Entertainment, added: “Both Helen and Janice have a wealth of relevant experience and expertise that I am confident will be invaluable for the growth of Moonbug’s Consumer Products business. Their roles will play a key part in our continued rapid expansion. I am very much looking forward to working with them both at such an exciting and important time in the Moonbug journey.”

KidsKnowBest bolsters team with two new hires

Full-service communications agency KidsKnowBest has announced the appointment of Agnieszka Kendrick and George Sinnott to the roles of performance director and growth manager respectively.

Agnieszka joins from Metia, where she was the global Paid Media lead. Previously, she worked at agencies including TBG Digital (now part of Sprinklr) and ForwardPMX, where she led the Nike performance team. She begins at KidsKnowBest during a period of expansion, as the company dials up its data-driven media offering and internal planning tools.

Agnieszka said: “KKB is leading the way when it comes to understanding the wants and needs of the future consumer and I am so excited to be joining as performance director. The team’s disruptive approach to the way media agencies should behave matches the ambitions I am looking for in the next step of my career.”

George Sinnott joins from Rise At Seven, where he moved through their ranks as quickly as the company expanded, starting as digital analyst and rising to Data & Insights manager. As growth manager, he will be optimising all internal processes for KKB, ensuring campaigns are as effective as possible for clients along with advising the tech team on AdTech tools being built to accelerate the success of projects.

George commented: “I’m really excited to be joining KidsKnowBest which does incredible work and has a fantastic roster of clients for me to get stuck into. I’m looking forward to being part of some exciting projects and being involved in taking KidsKnowBest and its product suite to the next level.”

The appointments mark a moment of real drive from KidsKnowBest as the company embarks on new territories (US and EMEA) and moves even further into the data and technological side of its offering.

Rob Lough, co-founder and chief brand Officer at KidsKnowBest, said: “At KidsKnowBest, we’re unashamedly hyper-ambitious in our plans, we know the rich data and insights powering our strategy are only as good as the personnel making sense of it. Agi and George fit the bill perfectly, they are both extremely tech-driven in their thought process, brilliant thinkers and specialists in their domain.”

Moose Toys appoints David Norman to spearhead global games

Moose Toys has appointed industry veteran David Norman as global general manager, Games. In his new role, David will be based at the company’s US headquarters in El Segundo, California.

The executive level hire is in response to Moose Toys’ announcement earlier this year that the games category would be one of the toymaker’s primary growth strategies.

Ronnie Frankowski, chief commercial officer, Moose Toys, commented: “David will help ensure we successfully combine our innovative product design capabilities with the unique aspects and requirements of the games category and, over time, to build our games division into a powerhouse. He is one of only a handful of truly recognized thought leaders in the global games industry.”

The company’s broad range of offerings includes board games, card games and a range of high-quality and engaging educational games.

“My career has been spent creating new and more innovative ways to engage consumers in games across multiple genres,” said David Norman. “Moose’s enthusiasm for the category and its commitment to over invest in the category across all genres piqued my interest from the get-go.”

Having co-founded successful global games business Goliath Games, David spent 13 years as president. Prior to Goliath, he spent 12 years with University Games, amassing incredible sales, marketing and product development experience.

He added: “I love the range of games that Moose already has both in its line-up and in development for 2023; they are consistent with the innovation and creativity that Moose is known for in traditional toys. I look forward to blending my expertise with Moose’s vision and being an integral part of growing the company’s reputation in games as well as contributing to its overall continued growth.”

Sequin Art expands sales team

Sequin Art has announced the expansion of its sales team to support the continued growth of its product portfolio to independent retailers. In announcing the expansion of four sales agents across England, Wales and Scotland, sales manager Christopher Watts said that the return of a full sales team across the UK market was in response to support the needs of the company’s retail partners, as the market emerges from the pandemic, with a sales team capable of matching the brands upward trajectory.

The new sales agents are: Martin Pike – South, South-West, and South Wales. Tel: 01202 882991 Will Abigail – South-East, London and East Anglia. Email: waagencies@outlook.com Kingsley Li – Midlands, North Wales and the North of England. Email: kckagencies@outlook.com Maria Thomson – Scotland. Email: mariathomson2@gmail.com Each agent can be contacted individually or via the Sequin Art Head office, email: sales@sequinart.com / Tel:

01760 721390 The new team joins at an exciting time for the business as 2022 also marks a change in manufacturing processes, with the company’s ranges moving towards increased sustainability and the reduction of packaging.