Monika Salazar leaves My Little Pony, Transformers and other priority brands at Hasbro to become licensing director for Pokémon Company International. In her new position, Ms. Salazar will put together deals involving the Pokémon brand in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Before Hasbro, she worked at MTV Networks and Nickelodeon.
Lori Heiss takes over as brand director at Smiley in charge of toys, back-to-school, publishing, digital and FMCG. Before that, Ms. Heiss was brand director for Shine Group’s “MasterChef” TV series. Her 20-year licensing career also includes stints at Disney, Pokémon, HIT Entertainment and Chorion.
Mike Shearwood’s departure from the board of directors takes Aurora Fashions Group a step closer to dissolution and sale of its brands. Aurora owns some of Britain’s top high street fashion chains, including Oasis, Coast and Warehouse. Mr. Sherwood, current Karen Millen boss, had been CEO of Aurora until 2012 when Karen Millen was spun off. Having left the Aurora board, he’s now free to pursue a management buy-out of the company.
Vicky Hill is now licensing manager of Bulldog Licensing. She joined the company, whose clients include Microsoft and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as a licensing executive just over a year ago.