Berry Joins Viacom Veteran Susan Claxton to Lead Labs
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Viacom Labs, an incubator for the future of fan experience and
engagement, today announced that Kiel Berry has joined as Co-Head and
SVP. Berry, most recently head of Linkin Park's Machine Shop Ventures,
will co-lead Viacom Labs with Viacom veteran Susan Claxton who was
recently promoted to SVP. The division reports to Viacom Executive Vice
Presidents Ross Martin and Kern Schireson.
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Kiel Berry (Photo: Business Wire)
"In its first five months, we've doubled the Labs team, tripled its
slate of projects, and seen the real business impact this team is
already having across the Viacom portfolio," said Martin, EVP of
Marketing Strategy & Engagement. "With their unique backgrounds in
entertainment, technology and business innovation, we're thrilled to
have Kiel and Sue leading the charge."
Berry helped launch Linkin Park's Machine Shop Ventures, which has
stakes in Lyft, Hyperloop One, and Blue Bottle Coffee, among many
others. He maintains an advisory role there. Berry started at Machine
Shop Entertainment, aligning Linkin Park's influence and interest across
music, technology, content and design. Before that he worked at Creative
Artists Agency in their Entertainment Marketing and International
Business Development groups. Berry began his career working overseas and
stateside as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan after graduating from
University of Pennsylvania.
Berry's co-head Susan Claxton has served as Viacom Labs' executive
producer since its launch. Claxton joined Viacom in 2010 as a Vice
President at the company's in-house creative consultancy Scratch.
Previously, she was VP of Development & Production for Omnicom's branded
entertainment company, Full Circle Entertainment. She graduated from
Yale University.
The New York-based Viacom Labs launched in May 2016 and has quickly made
an impact across the company's portfolio through Labs' partnerships with
Airbnb, GIPHY, real-time animation studio FlickerLab, and mobile-first
publishing platform Citia.
About Viacom
Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling
television programs, motion pictures, short-form content, apps, games,
consumer products, social media experiences, and other entertainment
content for audiences in 180 countries. Viacom's media networks,
including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV
Land, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., Channel 5 (UK), Logo, Nicktoons, TeenNick
and Paramount Channel, reach over 3.8 billion cumulative television
subscribers worldwide. Paramount Pictures is a major global producer and
distributor of filmed entertainment.
For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com.
Keep up with Viacom news by following Viacom's blog at blog.viacom.com
and Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/viacom.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161020006465/en/
Viacom:
Bridget Darcey, 212-846-7398
Bridget.Darcey@viacom.com
Source: Viacom
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