WOMEN IN TOYS
Amy Albion, Sales Manager, Bandai
Albion’s colleague said: “I have known Amy since she came to Bandai UK, 14 years ago. Now sales manager with responsibility for TRU, Smyths, The Entertainer, Amazon and Toymaster, Amy is universally liked and respected by customers, licensors and colleagues. It is a pleasure to work with her. She is smart, reliable, trustworthy and is passionate about our industry. She is a shining example of a woman in business today.”
Michele Bates, Managing Director, Evolution PR
Bates began Evolution PR in 2004. Since then, the business has gone from strength to strength, working with many top toy, licensing and nursery companies. Evolution also works closely with educational publisher MA Education in delivering the highly acclaimed Practical Pre-school Awards. Bates has seen the business grow rapidly over the last decade, and now has 12 members of staff and works with 16 firms.
Ali Brown, Marketing Manager, Orchard Toys
Brown joined Orchard Toys in February 2013, arriving with a wealth of experience having worked with business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients. Her previous roles include working in the marketing department at Virgin Money, as well as working on the Disney on Ice account while at Fox Murphy, now Balloon Dog. In her current role, she helps to get the word out about the Orchard Toys portfolio.
www.toynews-online.biz
Sarah Allen, Head of PR, Mattel
Kate
Armitage, Director of Marketing, Gibson Games
Friendly, knowledgeable and straight talking, Sarah Allen is popular with both her in-house PR and marketing team and the toy industry at large. The long serving director
has worked on brands including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Monster High and Fisher-Price. You’re always guaranteed a straight answer to any query, and a fast turnaround, too, and this makes for refreshing, insightful and valued industry opinion.
Rosie Bayles, Director of Media & Licensing, Bandai
Bayles has been one of Bandai UK’s key personnel for more than 20 years. Having headed up the marketing team until 2008, Bayles then moved to her current role of director of media and licensing. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing new opportunities for
partnerships with media partners and licensors. As well as being a key member of the Bandai team, Bayles is also a BTHA committee member.
Laura Bull, Marketing Manager, Schleich
Bull has been at German toy firm Schleich since 2010 and boasts a wealth of information and knowledge on the industry. She is responsible for all of the UK marketing, coordinating all activities within the overall global approach of Schleich. This includes trade marketing, supporting indies through promotions, consumer activities and sales aids. Bull also handles TRU, Amazon and ELC.
Armitage joined Gibsons as operations manager in 2005 and made her mark by improving efficiencies across the business. In 2007, Armitage became director of marketing and is responsible for overseeing all product development and marketing strategy. “Kate’s overwhelming strength is in combining her creative flair with unrivalled organisational and people management skills,” Nick Wright, Gibson’s managing director, tells us.
Nicola Bergot, Commercial Director, Flair GP
Prior to Flair, Bergot worked for LEGO. When Flair was looking for a new member of its sales team, her name came up repeatedly from customers as an outstanding sales exec with a great reputation for efficiency, hard work and concern for the customer. At Flair, Bergot flourished and in recognition of her contribution to its strong growth, she was promoted to sales director before becoming commercial director last year.
Frances Cain, Owner of
Daughters of History and WIT UK Chair
Among her many notable accolades, Cain is the owner of internationally successful brand, Daughters of History and the Chairperson of the Women in Toys' UK chapter. As founder and CEO of Daughters of History, Cain is responsible for creative production, development, sourcing and day to day running of the boutique firm behind historical play dolls, novels, accessories and activity books.
Sponsored by:
Emma Arthur, Director, Norton & Co
Kirsty Barr, Founder & MD, miPR
Arthur joined the company 16 years ago as an account executive. Clients included Vivid Imaginations – for whom she still directs the account – and Mega Bloks. Through her time at the company she has led strategic responsibilities on numerous clients including VTech, LEGO, John Adams, GOSH, JCB and Tesco, and worked on high-profile brands such as TEKSTA, Pirates of the Caribbean, Rubik’s Cube, Moshi Monsters and Crayola.
Trudi Bishop, Head of Marketing & Licensing, Cartamundi
Bishop joined Cartamundi in November 2013. Working across the full product range and sales channels, she continues to improve Cartamundi's retail product offering and recently joined Cartamundi in bringing its 'strongest line-up ever' to Toy Fair this year, with a line led by the new Shuffle range. Bishop boasts extensive experience in product marketing in the UK, EMEA and Australasian markets from her previous role at LeapFrog.
Nieve Cavanagh, Marketing Manager, Hasbro
Cavanagh has extensive experience in trade marketing and business management in both the UK and international markets. She joined Hasbro in February 2012, prior to which she was the senior marketing manager at Casio UK. She has also held roles with Epson, Samsung and Olympus. Cavanagh studied BA Hons Law and Sociology at the University of Warwick before going on to do an MA in Marketing.
Barr has made it her business to know everyone in the toy, licensing and entertainment industry. She uses the network she has created to grow miPR’s client base but to also help smaller and new businesses to make meaningful connections. According to one member of her staff: “Kirsty truly understands the importance of the work/life balance and supports her staff so that we have flexibility in our working lives.”
Caroline Brotherton, Director, H Grossman
Brotherton has worked for H Grossman for around 17 years and has been a vital part of the growth and success the firm has enjoyed. As a director, she is very much the anchor to the MD and owner – Martin Grossman. She has formidable skills in marketing and admin, playing a key role in building the Ozbozz/HGL brand. She manages the UK operation in Glasgow and also handles some national sales accounts.
Anna
Chapman, Regional Head of Hardlines, Disney
Chapman has been with The Walt Disney Company for eight years. In her current role she heads up Disney hardlines, including toys across EMEA. The role sets the strategy for the toy business, working with multiple licensees across EMEA. Across DCP she leads licensing sales for all categories for the consumer group of ‘boys & fans’. Prior to Disney, Chapman spent 13 years working at Hasbro.
March 25
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