Ex-HIT exec to lead Nelvana Enterprises

Former HIT Entertainment exec and industry veteran Pam Westman has joined Corus Entertainment to lead its Nelvana Enterprises division.

At Nelvana Enterprises, the sales arm of Corus-owned content producer Nelvana, Westman will oversee brand development and management, a role that includes content and digital sales as well as L&M duties.

Antoine Erligmann, who heads up Corus’s European office, will now report to Westman, who was was most recently director of integration at high street retailer Staples Canada.

Westman is best known for holding senior roles at Thomas & Friends company HIT, where she led the US, Canadian and Latin American arms, and was part of the senior exec team that sold the business to Mattel in 2012.

She left the business in September that year along with Karen Barnes as Mattel restructured HIT’s business after the £426 million (US$626.8 million) purchase.

Westman will report to Scott Dyer, who was named president of Nelvana in a restructuring of the Corus media business in Canada last year.

“As we focus on the continued growth of our international business and our strategy to own more content, convincing Pam to return to her roots in brand management was a real coup for Nelvana,” he said.

Corus is in the final throws of acquiring fellow Canadian firm Shaw Communications. R. Shaw effectively owns both companies, and the deal between them is the latest example of high level consolidation in the Canadian media and communications market.