Viacom has made four internal appointments and two new hires to its Distribution and Business Development group.
Samantha Cooper and Deena Demasi have each been promoted to executive vice president positions and will continue to report directly to Tom Gorke, executive vice president and head of distribution and business development. Demasi will also report to Dario Spina, chief marketing officer at Viacom Velocity.
Cooper will lead the team negotiating and securing all linear and digital distribution deals across domestic Viacom media networks. She previously served as senior vice president in the Distribution Sales group and led Viacom’s digital content distribution deals with subscription video aggregators, electronic sell-through providers and other content distributors.
Demasi previously served as senior vice president of Content Distribution Marketing. She will continue to work on content distribution marketing, communications and client experience for Viacom, and will work more closely with Viacom Velocity and other internal stakeholders on revamping the company’s distributor relationships.
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“These moves ensure we have the right management team and structure in place to evolve Viacom’s approach to our content distribution partnerships. With leaders like Sam and Deena now fully empowered to execute our strategic initiatives, I am confident we can cement Viacom as the go-to provider for our partners who seek more innovative and flexible opportunities to serve their customers and expand their business,” said Gorke in a statement.
Viacom also named Andrew Borak as senior vice president of Distribution Marketing and Sheri Weidner as senior vice president of Distribution Partnerships.
Viacom’s new hires include Josh Clark, who comes over from Dish Network and joins the company as senior vice president of Distribution Partnerships, and Richelle Clements, who comes over from Credit Suisse and joins the company as senior vice president of Deal Finance.