DHX Media Promotes Lara Ilie, Hires Rachel Taylor for WildBrain
DHX Media appointed Lara Ilie (pictured left) to the position of vice-president of rights strategy, reporting to Anne Loi, chief commercial officer. DHX Media also announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, WildBrain, has appointed Rachel Taylor to the position of commercial director.
In this newly created position, Ilie will develop and help implement integrated strategies to monetize the company’s portfolio of intellectual property rights across business units and territories. Working with the senior management team, Ilie will be responsible for formulating strategies to keep DHX Media at the forefront of market trends and grow revenue from the company’s portfolio of kids and family brands. In addition, Ilie will manage sales of DHX Media’s content library in Canada, Italy, Spain, and Australia.Based in DHX Media’s Toronto offices, Ilie has worked for DHX Media since 2007 and was previously senior director of sales, responsible for Iberia, Italy, Benelux, Nordics, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Prior to DHX Media, she worked in sales and acquisitions for Romanian Television and Pro TV.
Reporting to Jon Gisby, managing director of WildBrain, Taylor will be responsible for expanding WildBrain’s commercial partnership business with third-party brands. Based in London, Taylor will lead WildBrain’s sales and operations teams as well as client management. Taylor comes to WildBrain with extensive experience in content distribution and monetization, coupled with a background in toys. During her career, she has held senior business and commercial roles at Sony Pictures Entertainment where she was director of commercial partnerships for EMEA and director of global commercial innovation and strategy, and at Twentieth Century Fox. Prior to joining WildBrain, she was international sales director for Australian toy company, Funtastic, and was tasked with re-launching the business’ own IP brands and growing its international distribution footprint.
Roblox Hires Laura Higgins to Lead Digital Civility Initiative
Roblox launched a new digital civility initiative with the hiring of Laura Higgins as its Director of Digital Civility.
Higgins brings more than 20 years of experience managing and promoting social care and support services, as well as creating online safety and digital civility programs.
Roblox’s Digital Civility Initiative will create and expand programs that empower kids, teens, parents, and caregivers with the skills to create positive online experiences. Efforts will include enhancing the in-game experience for players, improving programs and resources for parents and caregivers, and extending Roblox’s work with schools and educators.
Higgins will partner with digital safety leaders around the world to identify technology and behavioral trends that can help Roblox further strengthen its platform. She will develop educational resources for players, parents, and caregivers to promote community safety and digital civility best practices.
Higgins has pursued her vision for safe and productive online experiences for kids throughout her career. Most recently, she served as the Online Safety Operations Manager at the South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) for the past eight years, where she managed numerous services including the Professionals Online Safety Helpline (POSH), a support service for the children’s workforce in the UK. POSH provides advice about online and digital safety issues affecting children and is part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, a partnership of three leading organizations: SWGfL, Childnet International, and Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), with the mission to promote the safe and responsible use of technology for young people. She was previously a Committee Member for BBC Children in Need and is a Senior Visiting Fellow in Online Safeguarding at the University of Suffolk.