About HIT Entertainment
HIT Entertainment, owned by private equity investment group Apax Partners, is one of the world's leading independent children's entertainment producers and rights-owners. HIT's portfolio includes properties, such as Barney™, Bob the Builder™, Thomas & Friends™, Pingu™, Fireman Sam™, Angelina Ballerina™ and Rainbow Magic™. HIT represents Chapman Entertainment's Fifi and the Flowertots™ and Roary the Racing Car™ in North America and Japan, as well as Wallace & Gromit™, Shaun the Sheep™, Timmy Time™ and Aardman Classics from Aardman Animations. HIT also acts as a worldwide representative for The Jim Henson Company's library of classic family brands and as representative for The Wiggles® in the UK.
Launched in 1989, HIT's lines of business span television and video production, content distribution, publishing, consumer products licensing, live events and attractions and has operations in the UK, US, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. HIT is a part-owner of US preschool channel, PBS KIDS Sprout℠, and international preschool channel JimJam, (outside of the US, UK and China).
For more information, visit http://www.hitentertainment.com.
Gary Krakower
Senior Vice President, Business Development HIT Entertainment
Gary Krakower, Senior Vice President, Business Development, HIT Entertainment, North America has close to 20 years of experience in business development. In his current role, Gary oversees all attractions, stage shows and live events for the Company's portfolio of classic preschool brands including Barney™, Bob the Builder™, Thomas & Friends™ and Angelina Ballerina™, among others.
Most recently, Mr. Krakower served as the Vice President, International Licensing and Merchandising for Twentieth Century Fox, where he oversaw all business related to Fox licensing in Latin America, Pacific Rim, Japan, India and Canada and managed an international agent network spanning more than 25 countries. In this capacity, he established multi category programs at leading International retailers such as Wal-Mart, Extra Brazil, Carrefour Latin America and K-Mart and Target Australia and helped increase International Licensing and Merchandising revenue in the regions by 200% in a fouryear period. Prior to his role as Vice President, he established and ran Twentieth Century Fox's first licensing office in Canada.
Preceding his tenure at Fox, Mr. Krakower was the Director of Client Services for Design F/X Limited, where he was in charge of day to day management of the Company's key accounts, as well as strategic development and execution of all promotional campaigns.
Gary Krakower received his BA with honors in Mass Communications and Political Science from York University in Canada.
