As brands such as Miraculous – Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir and Ghostforce continue to expand, ZAG is further building its executive team with the appointments of Christophe Vallade as Vice President, Global E-Commerce, and Ben Johnson as Senior Vice President, Legal & Litigation.
Vallade will be in charge of defining, implementing, and managing the global e-commerce strategy for ZAG’s licensed products. He will oversee online growth and brand positioning, closely working with the retail and licensing teams. Prior to joining ZAG, Vallade worked for The Walt Disney Company, France, for the past 16 years. Most recently, as head of e-commerce, he was responsible for online sales for Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic licensed products. He has developed strong partnerships between Disney and online key pure players, supporting hundreds of licensees on multiple categories such as Toys, Stationery, Apparel, Home, Infant, Books, Gaming, etc. Vallade started at Disney in 2005 as Key Account Manager in the French Home Entertainment division.
Johnson will be responsible for all legal affairs, including litigation matters, management and protection of an extensive worldwide trademark portfolio, implementation of anti-counterfeiting measures, privacy concerns, risk management, negotiation of contracts for development, production and licensing of ZAG content, and other general legal issues. Prior to joining ZAG, Johnson served as VP, Head of Litigation at MGA Entertainment, where he was responsible for all litigation, trial, and appeal issues and assisted the general counsel and CEO on a wide range of other legal matters. He joined MGA Entertainment from The Boesch Law Group, where he served for thirteen years as senior counsel and trial lawyer responsible for all litigation, trial, and appeal matters across a broad spectrum of claims and industries.
“Both Christophe and Ben are highly experienced in their respective fields and we welcome them to our team,” said ZAG founder Jeremy Zag. “Demand for our heroes Ladybug and Cat Noir has grown exponentially over the past four years, with over 200 million products sold at retail. We have new content launching throughout this year including our second TV event, Miraculous World: Shanghai – The Legend of Lady Dragon, season four of Miraculous – Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir launching this summer, and our theatrical $100M+ movie, Miraculous Ladybug And Cat Noir ‘The Awakening’ premiering starting holiday 2021. Christophe and Ben’s contributions will ensure that we can further our growth across all business sectors and at the same time protect our IP.”