Kids and family division establishes Current Series Team
VANCOUVER – Thunderbird Entertainment announced today Matthew Berkowitz (above) has been promoted to president.
In addition to this new role, Berkowitz will continue in his current role as chief creative officer of Thunderbird and Atomic Cartoons, the company’s kids and family division.
“Berkowitz will oversee the development, production, distribution and acquisitions of intellectual properties (IP) across all Thunderbird Entertainment productions,” a Thunderbird press release says.
This includes those from Atomic Cartoons, Great Pacific Media (Thunderbird’s factual division) and additional scripted productions. He will also “be instrumental to Thunderbird’s long-term growth strategy.”
Previously, Berkowitz worked as an executive producer for Atomic Cartoons productions.
“Berkowitz will be based in the Los Angeles studio, providing oversight to each of Thunderbird’s four locations (Vancouver, LA, Ottawa and Toronto), and the team of more than 1,400 people,” the press release says. He will report to Jennifer Twiner McCarron, who remains CEO of Thunderbird and Atomic Cartoons.
“Matthew has an exceptional creative eye for identifying and producing successful content,” said Twiner McCarron, in the press release.
“This, combined with his strategic vision for growth and ability to foster great partnerships has made him invaluable to our team. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked alongside Matt for the last five years and we are thrilled to promote him to President of Thunderbird.”
Thunderbird also announced today several other promotions and new hires.
At Atomic Cartoons, Nadine Westerbarkey, head of 2D animation was promoted to the role of studio creative director and Carl Upsdell, series director was promoted to head of 2D animation. Andrew Egiziano was hired as Atomic Cartoons’ vice-president of production, Los Angeles.
At Great Pacific Media and Thunderbird scripted, Tony Chung was promoted from director of finance to senior vice-president of finance and corporate affairs, Lindsay Macadam was promoted from head of scripted development to senior vice-president of content and business development and Ed de Rivaz was promoted from creative director to senior vice-president of development.
Thunderbird also announced Atomic Cartoons has created a Current Series Team to provide “dedicated creative oversight at an executive level as projects transition from development into production,” according to the press release.
Brady Serwitz will serve as director of current series and Catie Carducci will serve as manager of current series.
“We are grateful to be a part of this booming entertainment industry and focus all our efforts to create programming that can hopefully inspire audiences around the world. Our Company’s success is rooted in its people, and I’m truly honored to grow with and learn from the many talented individuals across Thunderbird who create the extraordinary content we see on the screen,” said Berkowitz, in the press release.
“We are delighted to further support our content endeavors by establishing Thunderbird’s Global Distribution and Consumer Products Division spearheaded by industry veteran Richard Goldsmith earlier this year, as well as a new Current Series team at Atomic Cartoons. We see no ceiling to the opportunities ahead.”
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Image borrowed from Berkowitz’s Linkedin page.
