The media business is a unique blend of improvisation and strategy, cold calculation and bold risk-taking. Balancing these opposites is the key to success.
entertainment IP management & strategy
story ideation
creative development & leadership
25 years and counting
Decades of experience in creativity, team leadership and business development, have enabled me to excel at bridging the worlds of entertainment and commerce.
From CEO duties, to representing legendary brands and conceiving original IPs — I bring in-depth experience in driving creative process, building and executing strategies, and managing promotional initiatives.
With several market firsts and a track record of insights, I’ve launched numerous collaborations between creators and businesses across industries and scales.
One of my standout achievements in consumer products licensing was brokering the «Ice Age» partnership between 20th Century Fox and X5 Retail Group, Russia’s leading retailer. The collaboration launched over 50 private label SKUs that flew off the shelves for years, generated record-breaking royalties, and earned a licensor award in the retail category.
And my good fortune was discovering «Masha and the Bear». Early on I recognized the potential and won the CP & media representation rights in the domestic market and internationally. Fast forward 15 years, and it's in the top-3 of the most popular animated shows globally, with me contributing to its evolution with bizdev, story ideation, and character design.
2020 — 2025
Animaccord Ltd (Cyprus)
Creative & Business Development
// creative development, direct to consumer initiatives, AI content innovation
2016 — 2020
INK Group A/S (Denmark)
Head of Development
// business strategy, IP creation, creative development, teams management, media pitching & sales
2007 — 2016
Kidz Entertainment (Russia)
CEO
// business development, key account management, administration, leadership
2001 — 2007
EEMC (USA)
Sales Manager
// consumer products licensing (brands & characters), media sales
As a kid, I dreamed of becoming an animator and storyteller, which led me to art school and studying writing at university.
Early in my career, I worked as a freelance movie translator for TV and home video. Processing over 150 films gave me a deep understanding of script structure, rhythm, and dialogue — lessons that continue to shape my creative process today.
A successful foray into IP commerce and management deepened my creative expertise. Over the years, I’ve been involved in various aspects of development — from shaping my own story ideas to contributing to projects like «COOBO» (Japan), «Mervyn’s Album» (UK), «Magical Pet Shop» (USA), «Anansi» (South Africa), and doctoring «The Legend of Nowruz» (Turkey), «Mavka» (Ukraine), and «Toothy Nanny» (Russia).
I create characters too. Below you can find a naughty Inky Blot I sketched for «Mervyn's Album» series.
And as a producer overseeing scripts, visual style, and animatics, I led a development team through several pre-production tests. Please see one of the vignettes we did for «Mawia» series.
