Hostess, Hershey And Sonic Appoint New Executives To Key Roles

Baked goods company Hostess Brands promoted Andrew Jacobs to executive vice president and chief commercial officer. Jacobs previously served as senior vice president and chief customer office at Hostess.

“I’m confident in Andy’s ability to support growth for both our retail partners and Hostess while continuing to drive our iconic snack cake brands forward,” said Bill Toler, CEO of Hostess Brands.

Candy company Hershey Entertainment promoted John Lawn to CEO. Lawn was previously the company’s COO.

“Our entire board is pleased to name as CEO someone with John’s qualifications, experience and most importantly, dedication to Hershey Entertainment and Research (HE&R) and its mission to support the Milton Hershey School,” said Eric Henry, chief investment officer of Hershey Trust Company.

Ten-year Sonic veteran Lori Abou Habib is now the chief marketing officer for the fast food chain. With her new position, Habib will lead brand strategy, national marketing, media, digital strategy and marketing technology.

“I am delighted to elevate Lori to chief marketing officer; she is a talented, strong leader who enjoys the respect of our franchisees and won the position through a highly competitive national search,” said Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson. “We were very pleased with the caliber of candidates discovered during the search and are pleased for Darin and Kim to join the team. The decades of experience these three leaders share will propel the business and the brand forward for many years to come.”

Viacom announced four internal reappointments in the company’s distribution and business development group. These include Samantha Cooper and Deena Demasi as executive vice presidents, Andrew Borak as senior vice president of distribution marketing and Sheri Weidner as senior vice president of distribution partnerships.

“These moves ensure we have the right management team and structure in place to evolve Viacom’s approach to our content distribution partnerships. With leaders like Sam and Deena now fully empowered to execute our strategic initiatives, I am confident we can cement Viacom as the go-to provider for our partners who seek more innovative and flexible opportunities to serve their customers and expand their business,” said Tom Gorke, executive vice president/head of distribution and business development for Viacom.

The company also announced that Bryson Gordon, former head of data strategy, will serve as executive vice president of a new group dedicated to advanced advertising for Viacom.

ESPN expanded the role of Connor Schell by naming him executive vice president of content, placing him in charge of all of the sports network’s content creation across television, digital and print platforms. Schell had previously produced the Emmy-winning documentary series 30 For 30 for ESPN, as well as the award-winning O.J.: Made In America.

“Connor has demonstrated keen insight into what resonates with fans, and his instincts allow him to excel at managing the creative process,” said ESPN president John Skipper. “I have tremendous confidence that he and his new team of talented executives will help us create dynamic content that will break through in a changing environment.”

As Verizon completed the acquisition of Yahoo, Tim Armstrong was announced as COO of Oath, a new subsidiary combining Yahoo’s online assets with Verizon’s AOL business. Armstrong was previously the COO of AOL.

“We’re building the future of brands using powerful technology, trusted content and differentiated data,” Armstrong said about Oath. “We have dominating consumer brands in news, sports, finance, tech, and entertainment and lifestyle coupled with our market-leading advertising technology platforms. Now that the deal is closed, we are excited to set our focus on being the best company for consumer media, and the best partner to our advertising, content and publisher partners.”

Former Twitch executive Andy Swanson is headed to gaming chat app Discord to work as their new head of publisher relations.

“Discord has a rapidly growing community of gamers who are voracious users and fans of the product,” said Swanson. “My goal is to educate and connect the game creator ecosystem, encompassing publishers and developers of all shapes and sizes, to Discord and their authentic and passionate player community to make even more connections through gaming.”

Warner Bros. Pictures promoted JP Richards to executive vice president of worldwide marketing and chief data strategist.

“JP is a born collaborator, dynamic marketing strategist and recognized leader, not only in the digital arena, where he has led groundbreaking campaigns over the past two years, but across all of marketing,” said Blair Rich, president of worldwide marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures. “This promotion will allow us to tap into—and benefit from—his broad marketing expertise. We’ll look to him to help us understand, adapt and create strategies to the changing ways people are interacting with content, media and marketing activations at every touch point of our global campaigns.”

AMC and SundanceTV announced the promotion of Mac McKean as executive vice president of innovation, from the position of senior vice president of digital media. In his new role, McKean and his team are responsible for the development of future-focused multi-platform products, experiences and content for AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. McKean also will direct the networks’ expanding consumer relationship management efforts.

“AMC has enjoyed tremendous success in the digital, gaming and interactive space thanks in no small part to Mac’s and his team’s talent, hard work and creativity,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “In addition to our growing digital businesses, Mac and his team are spearheading the development of innovative products and services that will allow us to best position AMC Networks to be the content creators and providers of the future.”

Universal Music Group appointed Tuhin Roy to the newly created position of vice president of new digital business to identify and work closely with start-ups in the early-stage digital media sector to develop strategic new digital business partnerships.

“Tuhin brings an entrepreneurial orientation and an incredible wealth of experience to this role,” said Michael Nash, executive vice president of digital strategy. “I’m confident his deep knowledge of the start-up environment and investment community dynamics will magnify UMG’s efforts to cultivate the digital ecosystem, promote innovation and establish new revenue streams.”

The New York Times Company announced that Meredith Kopit Levien has been promoted to the position of executive vice president and chief operating officer to oversee the teams responsible for product, design, audience and brand, consumer revenue, advertising and NYT Beta.

According to a press release, under Kopit Levien’s watch, “The Times has nearly eclipsed two million digital-only news subscriptions, launched both T Brand Studio, a Cannes Mobile Grand Prix award-winning marketing agency, and Paid Posts, a standard setter in native advertising.”

Derrick Hatami, a former Hyundai executive, is headed to Volkswagen of America as its new head of US sales and marketing.

Andrew Saunders is headed to food-oriented digital media company Tastemade to serve as head of global brand strategy. Saunders previously worked as NBCUniversal’s vice president of content innovation and creative.

Congratulations to Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer Marisa Thalberg for winning the “She Runs It 2017 Woman of the Year” award, and CNN Worldwide, who won PromaxBDA’s “Global Excellence Marketing Team of the Year.”

(Editor’s Note: This post will be updated daily until Friday, June 16. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.)

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