Disney Appoints International Team for Latin America.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 9, 1999--

The Walt Disney Co. has named 11 Disney executives to posts in Latin America, it was announced Tuesday by Diego Lerner, president and managing director of Walt Disney International-Latin America.

"Our goal is to generate growth for The Walt Disney Co. in Latin America, through an organization with a unified leadership having the same consistency and vision as those that our company has in the United States," commented Robert A. Iger, president of Walt Disney International.

"Latin America offers great potential and opportunities for Disney. I am sure that the team of executives Diego leads will bring about the kind of transformation our company needs in order to strengthen our business and brand, as well as explore and develop very exciting new initiatives."

The new business model for Walt Disney International-Latin America takes an aggressive approach to business consolidation and is an important step toward growing the company's business in Latin America.

This model aims to create "one Disney" for the consumer, while building a more efficient base from which growth of existing businesses and the generation of new ones can be achieved in the short/medium term.

Lerner stated, "I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to drive this kind of change within our company. There are enormous opportunities for new business development in the Latin American region, and we have the best team of executives to identify and capture those opportunities, while enhancing the image of our brands and growing our existing businesses."

The new structure for Walt Disney International-Latin America consists of four territory offices: Walt Disney International- Argentina (based in Buenos Aires), handling Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay; Walt Disney International-Andean Region (based in Santiago de Chile), handling Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela; Walt Disney International-Mexico (based in Mexico D.F.), handling Mexico, Panama, Central America and the Caribbean; and Walt Disney International-Brazil (based in Sao Paulo).

These four territory offices' operations will be overseen by a very strong regional team, based in Buenos Aires, whose main focus will be to identify strategic opportunities, while providing supervision for the territory offices.

Each office will be headed by a managing director, who will provide a common vision to all Disney lines of business; focusing on each unique market, looking across the businesses to gain an integrated view of Disneys consumers, customers and partners, and to identify and pursue local opportunities for new businesses in the Latin American markets.

The newly appointed country managing directors are:

Javier Irarrazaval, MD Andean Region 

Irarrazaval joined Disney in June 1990 to start up the Disney Consumer Products office in Argentina to manage the Southern Cone. Since then, business has grown more than 3,000 percent. In 1995, his responsibilities were expanded to include Brazil, where business more than doubled under his supervision.

Finally, in 1998 he was asked to lead the NOLA and SOLA territories, which consist of the Disney Consumer Products operations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean.

Enrico Rastelli, MD Brazil

Rastelli's career has been developed within the Abril Group, working in several publishing areas. In 1988, he was appointed general manager of Abril Video which, as a Disney licensee, attained leadership of the home video market, innovating with the video release through retail and kiosks channels.

In January 1999, he joined Buena Vista Home Entertainment as general manager, and successfully started Disney's self-distribution of home videos to retail channels.

Mauricio Sanudo, MD Mexico

Sanudo joined Disney in 1996 as general manager of Buena Vista Home Entertainment. He leveraged his 10-year experience in the entertainment business by starting up Disney's home video operations in Mexico, where Disney now is the market leader.

Sanudo's consumer products background, as well as his experience in media and business development, allowed him to achieve growth and overall excellent results for Disney in the Mexican market during the most difficult years of the past decade.

Diego Lerner will continue to act in dual roles as head of the region and managing director of Argentina.

The regional team will be formed by the following newly appointed executives:

Craig Abolt, SVP Finance/CFO

Abolt joined the Walt Disney Co. corporate offices in 1991. In 1997, Abolt transferred to Disney Consumer Products Latin America where he established Finance as an integral business partner and reorganized the entire Finance, Accounting and Information Technology structures.

Since his transfer to the region, Abolt has played a key role in increasing operating margins. His technical and financial background, his management skills and his great knowledge about Disney's business culture, make of Abolt an ideal CFO to conduct and control all the company's administrative, finance and business operations in the region.

Elizabeth Bohannon, VP Global Licensing

Bohannon joined Disney Consumer Products Latin America in December 1992 as marketing manager for Latin America. In 1994, she was promoted to director and general manager for Central America and the Caribbean, where she achieved a CAGR of more than 40 percent for five years and the highest profit margins for the region.

In January 1998, Bohannon relocated with her family to Buenos Aires as director and general manager for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. In October 1998, Bohannon expanded her responsibilities to include all of South Latin America. Bohannon's Latin American experience in consumer products licensing, as well as in retail, make her a key executive within the new structure model.

Claudio Chiaromonte, VP Business Planning

Chiaromonte joined Disney in 1996 as head of administration for the BVI/BVHE Latin America Regional Office. In that role, he lead regional administrative re-engineering programs for BVI and he was also responsible for the financial analysis of strategic office moves.

In 1997, he participated in the acquisition of Patagonik Film Group (an Argentine film production company). During the last three years, he has collaborated with Lerner in developing regional strategic alliances.

Chiaromonte's vast knowledge of the legal and tax structures in each one of the markets of the region, his financial background and his business orientation, will be of the utmost importance in the business development area and in new enterprises.

Maria Drew, VP Human Resources 

Drew has been with The Walt Disney Co. since 1985. Her Disney career began in the corporate Human Resources division in the Equal Employment Opportunities department. In 1994, Drew transferred to Disney Consumer Products Latin America for the specific purpose of starting up the Human Resources department for the region.

She has been instrumental in establishing HR as a business partner to further the region's growth initiatives. She has also been key to the engineering of this new organization.

Martin Iraola, VP Business & Operations

Iraola joined Disney in 1992 as the BVI head of distribution. During this period, he was instrumental in the operations and subsidiaries set up throughout the region, as well as in positioning BVI as the leading film-distribution company in the region.

Iraola has also been involved in other areas of the business, such as local co-productions, home entertainment and other new businesses to be developed in the short term. In addition to his current responsibilities, in his new role Iraola will focus on new business development and new technologies.

Simon Kenny, Executive VP Broadcasting

Kenny joined Disney in April 1992 as director of international Sales. He was responsible for consolidating BVI-TV's (Buena Vista International Television -- the sales and distribution arm of Walt Disney International TV) international syndication business in Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, and expanded it into India, China and Romania.

He then became VP and managing director, BVI-TV, where his responsibilities included the rollout of the Disney Channel in Europe, Africa and Latin America. In 1997, Kenny was appointed senior VP and managing director, Walt Disney International Television-Latin America where his responsibilities included production, distribution, broadcasting and marketing of all WDI-TV's products.

Kenny will continue to manage and develop this key area of the TV business and related media in the region. In addition, he will be involved in new business initiatives that will go beyond his day-to-day current responsibilities.

Jessica Knopf, Director-Publishing

Knopf was the regional director of publications for Disney Consumer Products Latin America since 1994. As regional director, she was responsible for the development of the Latin American licensing strategies for all publication product categories as well as the creator of Reportero Disney, a newspaper supplement with a circulation of 600,000 in the Latin American region.

Prior to that, Knopf was the publications manager for The Walt Disney Co. Spain. Knopf's experience in the publishing business in the Spanish Latin market in general, and her wide knowledge of the consumer's social and economic profile in the region, will contribute much to the development of the different strategies that will expand the publishing business in the whole region.

Laura Rama, VP Marketing & Brand Development

Rama joined BVI in January 1992. At that time, BVI's films were handled via very conventional movie marketing programs; today BVI's marketing campaigns are the most aggressive in the region.

In recent years, Rama has initiated and overseen the development of such projects as the BVI/Disney Spanish and Portuguese Web sites and the creation of the BVI FILMS magazine, which has pan-regional distribution.

Rama has a strong knowledge of the Disney brand as well as a wide experience in the area of marketing, communications and events in the Latin American region, which gives her an ideal combination of skills for her new role.