maddalena-a9617.jpg
Clearly DC was not taken aback by Bob Wayne’s official announcement of his retirement, as the new SVP of Sales and Business Development was waiting in the wings. 16 year WB vet and former Warner Home Entertainment VP Derek Maddalena will fill the role, and as the PR suggests, pick up some tips from Wayne before he takes the role over in Burbank. ICv2 has some well-reasoned analysis of the hire, as Maddalena wisely has no social media trail to Google. I’d throw in that Maddalena comes from WB topper Kevin Tsujihara’s former domain in home vid and digital, so I’d guess that they are pals.

As many have noted after looking at this photo provided by CBR, Maddalena will, at least, fit in with the shaved head, bearded look favored by so many in the comics and retailing industry. This is a good start as Wayne’s shoes will be very difficult to fill. As one industry type I was chatting with over the weekend at BEA noted, “even when Bob told retailers ‘Here’s some horrible crap” they clapped and cheered.”

DC Entertainment announced today that Derek Maddalena has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development. The announcement was made by DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, to whom Maddalena will report.
 
Maddalena joins DC Entertainment from the Warner Home Entertainment Group where he was Vice President, Sales & Trade Marketing for Home Video and Digital Distribution.  A 16-year Warner Bros. veteran, Derek brings with him considerable experience in creating comprehensive cross-divisional sales strategies and a wealth of knowledge of the vast WB film, TV, and animation libraries.  
 
“Derek’s strong familiarity with DC Entertainment’s characters and stories through his work on the entire DC catalog film library and most recently last year’s Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics original documentary make him a great fit for this new position,” stated DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee.

The Co-Publishers continued “We look forward to working with Derek to expand readership in both physical and digital channels, create comprehensive sales strategies to strengthen and broaden DC Entertainment’s reach with our existing valued distribution partners, and work with WB division partners to maximize opportunities for DC themed content.”  
 
“As a lifelong fan of DC Entertainment’s characters and stories I’m thrilled to join the company and look forward to working closely with Dan, Jim and the team to further grow the business and bring comics to an even broader audience,” stated Maddalena.
 
In the coming months Maddalena will work closely with Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne and the teams in Burbank and New York to ensure a seamless transition of the sales and business development functions.

1 COMMENT

  1. Still uneasy about this, but really, what am I gonna do about it from here. It would have been far better for the company to go with someone with working knowledge of the system but hey – this could be a surprise. I’m just… not hopefully, given recent track records…

Comments are closed.