Here's a rundown of news on hires, promotions, and creator company announcements from the past week. Are we missing anyone? Let us know.
New hires, promotions, and departures
- Julian Gutman is the new chief product officer at Patreon. Gutman previously served as Instagram's director of product management.
- Influencer agency Village Marketing hired Lorraine Carlucci as its new marketing manager. Carlucci previously served as deputy director of digital partnerships for the 59th Presidential Inaugural Committee and as an influencer partnerships manager on the "Biden For President" campaign. Village partnered with the Biden team on its influencer strategy last year.
- Brooke Berry is set to join the creator development team at Snap starting next week. She previously held roles at VidCon and ViacomCBS' AwesomenessTV.
- Joowon Lee is leading the new emerging talent division at The Kinetic Group, a talent-management firm that represents gaming creators like NICKMERCS, SypherPK, and AA9SKILLZ. Before joining TKG, Lee worked as an account manager at UTA's Press X.
- Narbeh Minasians joins Pokémon as its new director of digital consumer engagement. Minasians was previously director of social and digital marketing at Nickelodeon Animation.
- Becca Bahrke left her role as VP of talent at influencer-marketing studio Socialyte to manage talent and influencer partnerships at Loki Artist Group.
New talent signings
- The new talent-management firm UnderscoreTalent signed YouTube child stars Vlad & Niki, Deadline reported.
- WME signed TikTok creator Taylor Cassidy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- CAA signed gaming creator Zack 'ZLaner' Lane, TubeFilter reported.
- UTA signed TikTok star Quen Blackwell, WWD reported.
- Sohla El-Waylly, who first rose to internet fame on Bon Appetit's YouTube channel and now hosts a cooking show for Food52, signed with Range Media Partners, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
New creator economy investments
- Digital rights management platform Pex raised a $57 million investment round with participation from investors like Tencent, Tencent Music Entertainment, and NexGen Ventures Partners.
- Social-media star David Dobrik's startup Dispo raised $20 million at a $200 million valuation in a Series A led by Spark Capital, Axios first reported.
- TikTok star Josh Richards and his business partner Michael Gruen are joining up with Mark Wahlberg's Unrealistic Ideas to launch a new production company for internet creators called CrossCheck Studio. The company said it plans to work with "Gen Z content creators across all sectors of entertainment."
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