3.05.2009

more developments at LAIKA

LAIKA made some big announcements earlier today. travis knight is stepping up to the position of CEO of the company, and claire jennings is taking a position as "president of entertainment". you can read the press release for all the gory details.

i think this is great news. i have a lot of confidence in both of these individuals. claire jennings is very well-respected throughout the animation industry, and she's already made a positive impact at LAIKA since she came aboard midway through coraline. i consider myself fortunate to have been able to work closely with travis knight over the past couple of years on coraline. he's an amazing animator, and was one of the most hardworking individuals on the project. i'm sure he'll be even more devoted to his new position as CEO.

who knows if any of this will speed up the timeline for another stop motion feature at LAIKA, but i have to assume so. good people are at the reigns, so i have hope.

4 comments:

mefull said...

Interesting news to say the least.

Will his new title be Animator/CEO or just CEO?

You kind of hate to see him give up the the work he liked to be a suit, but it seems like great news for Laika in general.

j.spake said...

CEO. head honcho. big chief.

he's also stated that he is still committed to animating on future projects, although i'm sure it will be in a limited capacity. we'll see how that goes. i think its great news for the company, though. there has been a lot of uncertainty in the air for a while, and it finally feels like there's someone behind the wheel.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a great time for Laika. I would love to meet the man who brought that company back from the edge. Especially because he's an animator! I don't have many questions, but the ones I do have are real doozies. :)

jriggity said...

Excellent!

Good leadership is everything.
Its definately going to be hard to do both though.

very happy to hear!

jriggity