Newsmakers
Australian to Lead Fox Alternative Programming
Fox Television Studios has brought its head of television in Australia back to Los Angeles to head up its alternative programming division.
David Martin has been named executive vice president for Fox Alternative Productions, where he will oversee development and production of Fox Television Studio’s unscripted, reality and alternative/scripted series for the broadcast network, cable and syndication market.
Current productions include “The Shield” and “Son of the Beach” on F/X.
Martin says his overseas experience has given him the background needed to breathe new life into U.S. programming and to do it more cheaply.
“Having overseas perspective makes me more open to look at overseas markets for shows,” he says. “It has also given me ways of looking at things in a different way, including production costs.”
Martin says the low-budget nature of programming produced in Australia has taught him how to cut corners knowledge he says he plans to use here in the U.S.
“I have been at meetings at the studios and they think it costs $50,000 to shoot something that we could do for $2,000 in Australia,” he says. “At large studios, things can become somewhat bureaucratic.”
Martin wants to develop a variety of edgy, alternative programs.
“I am hoping we can build on the success of other low budget scripted drama and comedy shows we have produced in recent years,” he says. “They have proved to be different than anything else on television, carving out niches for themselves within cable programming.”
Although he will be based in Los Angeles, Martin will continue to work with Fox TV studios sister division Fox World and remain involved with Fox World Australia.
Martin is married and has ten-year-old twins. Born and raised in Australia, he attended the University of Sydney where he studied law and economics.
Dana Brody
Education
Kenneth J. Jones has been named vice president for finance and administration at Woodbury University in Burbank. Jones will be involved in fund accounting, student information systems and financial analysis. He has been the college’s controller for the past year and prior to that was controller for Otis College of Art and Design.
Christopher Waterman, chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, has been named acting dean of UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture. He succeeds Daniel Neuman, who has been appointed executive vice chancellor of UCLA. Waterman is an anthropologist and musician who specializes in the study of music and popular culture. He has been on the UCLA faculty since 1996.
Entertainment
Arthur W. Forney has signed a two-year director/producer deal with Wolf Films. Forney will continue to be co-executive producer on all of the Wolf Films/Universal current series including “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” as well as the new show “Crime and Punishment.” He will also continue to direct episodes from the Law & Order franchise.
Mike McNellis, Ron Mencer and Christine Russel have joined Autonomy’s expanded in-house business development team. McNellis, most recently a business consultant for Runaway Train Productions, and Mencer, previously serving as a business development executive for Moviola, have been named business development executives. Russell has been named development strategist. Most recently, she was an independent strategic consultant. Autonomy is a Hollywood-based entertainment branding and marketing company whose clients include broadcast networks and cable channels.
John Scales has been appointed vice president, retail operations, for Universal Studios Hollywood. He will be responsible for the operation of the theme park’s 22 retail stores and concessions. Before coming to Universal, he was a vice president for video retailer Hollywood Entertainment Corp.
Hollis Batchelor has been named deputy national executive director for organizing, education and branch management of the Screen Actors Guild. Batchelor will be responsible for organizing new work for members. He is a 24-year veteran of SAG, having served as claims representative, assistant Florida director and most recently Florida executive director.
Environmental
Norman S. Eke was promoted to vice president and elected to the board of Monrovia-based Converse Professional Group. He started with the environmental engineering company in 1990 as a staff environmental scientist and will continue as managing officer of Converse’s Southern California Environmental Operations.
Health
Jeffrey M. Folick has been named executive vice president of regional health plans and specialty companies for Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. In this role, Folick will oversee Health Net plans in the Northeast and Arizona, as well as the company’s behavioral health care subsidiary. He is also charged with developing health care performance management strategies for all Health Net plans. Before joining Health Net, Folick was president and chief operating officer of PacifiCare Health Systems.
Law
Michael Farrell and Jeff Strug have been elected partners in the Los Angeles office of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory. Farrell concentrates on commercial litigation in state and federal courts with an emphasis on real estate, securities and employment litigation. Strug focuses on tax planning. Both were associates at the firm.
Brad Cohen and Michael Foster have joined the Los Angeles law firm of Reish Luftman McDaniel & Reicher. Cohen and Foster are founding partners of the tax, business and estate planning law firm of Cohen, Primiani & Foster. Cohen and Foster deal with tax, estate planning and corporate transactional issues.
Marketing & P.R.
Jennifer Cohen has been named senior publicist for Asbury Communications Inc., a Hollywood public relations, promotional and marketing communications company. Cohen most recently served as the director of sales for WOW and Flutter, a sound design production company specializing in the composition of original music for commercials, TV and film.
Dean Alan and Ryk Mesure have been hired as directors of business development for Santa Monica-based advertising firm Carlow Design Inc., where they will be charged with expanding the firm’s business in Southern California and Hawaii. Alan spent 10 years at D.A. Associates. Mesure has spent the last 20 years in the hospitality industry as a strategies consultant.
Real Estate
Father and son Mitchell and David Leit have joined CRESA Partners Los Angeles. The Leits, who are tenant rep specialists, recently represented Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, AT & T; Broadband, Hewlett Packard/Agilent, and Fleet Financial.
Steve Howerton has been promoted to vice president-tenant coordination of Macerich Co. of Santa Monica. Howerton joined the retail real estate investment trust in 1998 as manager of tenant coordination. Prior to working for Macerich, he was a project manager/tenant coordinator for Trizec-Hahn.
Recruiting
Paul Costa has joined the Westwood office of Robert Half as a recruiting manager for the staffing service. Costa, with 13 years of experience in the financial industry, most recently was a mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo.
Restaurants
Mike Williams was promoted to company market manager for Sherman Oaks-based Sizzler International Inc. With more than 11 years of experience in the restaurant industry, Williams started at Sizzler in 1991 as a restaurant manager. Williams was most recently involved in training Sizzler franchise owners and operators at the Los Feliz location and became a certified training unit manager at the airport location.
Technology
Edward Agar has been named senior vice president of marketing and strategic partnerships for Santa Monica-based RampRate LLC. Agar will be responsible for helping to develop programs for the Internet services and hosting content delivery and services work. Agar was most recently head of IBM’s U.S. hosting channel’s sales unit.
Michael Daniel has been hired as the vice president of technology for The Legal Knowledge Company, a Los Angeles-based firm which provides online legal compliance and ethical awareness training for corporations. Daniel was senior vice president of technology for Fox Kids and Fox Family Interactive.
Transportation
Karen Steffan has been promoted by Enterprise Rent-A-Car to manage rental operations in the Los Angeles area. Previously an area manager for the company, she will be responsible for half of Enterprise’s northern Los Angeles region, which includes 24 rental offices and 150 employees in areas such as downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood and the mid-Wilshire. She will be based out of Enterprise’s administrative offices in Burbank. Mark C. Jewell has been promoted to manage Enterprise’s operations in La Canada Flintridge, Glendale, Burbank, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and Studio City. He previously was an area manager for the company and will be based in Burbank.
Wholesale
Lorelyn Eaves has been named vice president of marketing for the California Market Center. She will be responsible for marketing the 3-million-square-foot showroom facility of the gift, home accessories and apparel mart in downtown Los Angeles. Most recently, Eaves was senior director of marketing communications for Homestore.com.
