Gaumont Animation has brought on board Karen Vermeulen and Cyril Le Pesant to expand its global Animation and Family efforts in Europe.
Joining in August, Vermeulen has been appointed as the Global Co-production, Financing & Business Development SVP, based in Gaumont’s London offices. In her new role, Vermeulen will be working closely with Animation & Family Creative Development SVP Terry Kalagian and her team to handle funding models/partners for the current development slate and serve to identify new co-pro projects and future opportunities. Creative Development VP Courtney Arumugam, also based in London, will report to Vermeulen and continue to develop and produce out of the UK.
“I am absolutely thrilled to join Nicolas Atlan [Gaumont Animation president of Animation & Family] at long last, and his amazingly talented team! I am very excited by the diverse development slate, and to be a part of putting together the jigsaw puzzle to drive more global co-productions,” commented Vermeulen.
Vermeulen most recently served as head of Global Content Strategy and co-production in addition to managing director based in the UK office of Cloudco Entertainment. During her time at Cloudco, she oversaw the financing and distribution and served as executive producer.
The appointment of Vermeulen is part of Gaumont’s continued commitment to create and foster strategic partnerships worldwide as they continue to bolster their Animation and Family slate across all genres.
Le Pesant, on the other hand, has joined Gaumont Animation this month as the new head of Animation & Family in Paris. Le Pesant will work together with the Animation and Family teams in the US and UK across the sourcing of IP, co-productions, development and production with a primary focus on running the Paris based studio which will report to him directly.
Added he, “I am very happy and proud to join Gaumont, the company whose Marguerite (Daisy) logo rocked my childhood. I am also delighted to work with Atlan and Terry Kalagian and their entire team who have done an extraordinary job over the last four years. This is a very exciting time at Gaumont Animation & Family, and I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity. With so many projects already in production in addition to a robust development slate, we are on an incredible path.”
Le Pesant most recently served as KNIGHTWORKS co-founder and CEO. It is a production, animation and creative studio based in Paris. Since KNIGHTWORKS debut in 2009, Le Pesant has partnered with a long list of high-profile clients and has produced over a dozen high-quality, award-winning animated and scripted series, films and documentaries.
Commenting on the new hires, Atlan said, “I can’t begin to express how thrilled we are to have both Vermeulen & Le Pesant join the Gaumont team. I’ve known Vermeulen for many years and I’ve always wanted to work with her, and Le Pesant’s energy and passion makes him a perfect fit for our team. Together they bring a new level of creative expertise and technical skills which will further add to the momentum Gaumont continues to build across Europe and around the world. Both will work closely with Kalagian, our SVP of Creative Development, and her talented team.” Both Vermeulen and Le Pesant will report to Atlan.
Founded in France in 1895, Gaumont is the world’s first film company and producer of the award winning series Narcos. It is also the creator forthcoming animated series, Do, Re & Mi starring Kristen Bell (Frozen) and Jackie Tohn (Glow) for Amazon Prime Video, as well as High in the Clouds, an animated feature developed together with Paul McCartney for Netflix.