{"id":3346,"date":"2019-07-23T11:23:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T11:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2019\/07\/23\/thunderbird-entertainment-announces-senior-appointments-at-its-kids-and-family-division\/"},"modified":"2019-07-23T11:23:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T11:23:39","slug":"thunderbird-entertainment-announces-senior-appointments-at-its-kids-and-family-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2019\/07\/23\/thunderbird-entertainment-announces-senior-appointments-at-its-kids-and-family-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderbird Entertainment Announces Senior Appointments at its Kids and Family Division"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nadine Westerbarkey promoted to Head of 2D Animation and <\/em><\/strong>Chris Buckley promoted to Head of 3D Animation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

VANCOUVER \/ July 23, 2019<\/strong>\u2013 Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV:TBRD) (\u201cThunderbird\u201d or the \u201cCompany\u201d), a global multi-platform entertainment company, is pleased to announce two senior appointments at its kids and family division, Atomic Cartoons. Nadine Westerbarkey has been promoted to the role of Head of 2D Animation, and Chris Buckley has been promoted to Head of 3D Animation. Both positions will be based in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

As Head of 2D Animation, Westerbarkey will leverage her 25 years of expertise as an animator and storyboard artist to oversee the production of both owned IPs and service projects at the Company. Prior to her promotion, Westerbarkey served as Animation Director at the Company, working on productions such as 101 Dalmatian\u00a0<\/em>Street,\u00a0<\/em>which recently premiered on Disney, and Hilda<\/em>, which premiered as a Netflix original in 2018.<\/p>\n

As Head of 3D Animation, Buckley will apply his 23 years of industry experience to oversee the production of both owned IPs and service projects. Prior to his promotion, Buckley served as Animation Director on multiple productions at the Company, including\u00a0LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit, <\/em>among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talent at Atomic is the heart and success of the kids and family division, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to promote Nadine and Chris,\u201d says McCarron. \u201cAs we continue to expand our production pipeline by attracting top quality service work from the likes of Netflix, Disney and NBC Universal, and acquiring highly sought-after IPs that include\u00a0Princesses Wear Pants <\/em>and\u00a0The Last Kids on Earth<\/em>, Nadine and Chris will be key to making sure our animation teams continue to excel.”<\/p>\n

Prior to joining Thunderbird\u2019s kids and family division in 2017, Westerbarkey held the role of Animation Director at DHX Media, and before that, she was a Supervising Animation Director at Bardel Entertainment. She has also held multiple roles at Disney, including Supervising Animator and Senior Character Animator. \u00a0In addition to her work at Atomic Cartoons, over the course of her career, Westerbarkey has contributed her 2D expertise to productions that include films such as My Little Pony: The Movie <\/em>for Hasbro, The Croods <\/em>for DreamWorks Animation, and Lilo and Stitch 2\u00a0<\/em>for Disney, as well as the popular series\u00a0Rick and Morty <\/em>for Cartoon Network.<\/p>\n

Buckley also joined Thunderbird\u2019s kids and family division in 2017. Prior to working at the Company, he was employed in multiple roles, including as a Senior Animator at Industrial Light & Magic, a Lead Animator at Animal Logic and a Supervising Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks.\u00a0 In addition to his work on LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit\u00a0<\/em>at Atomic Cartoons, Buckley has contributed his talents as a 3D animator to productions such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi <\/em>for Lucasfilm,The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part <\/em>for Warner Animation,\u00a0Jurassic World <\/em>for Legendary Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, <\/em>and Alice: Through the Looking Glass <\/em>for Disney and Tim Burton Productions. <\/em><\/p>\n

Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thunderbird Entertainment Group is a Vancouver-based global multi-platform entertainment company with offices in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Toronto, Ottawa and London (UK). Thunderbird creates award-winning scripted, unscripted and animated programming for the world\u2019s leading digital platforms, as well as Canadian and international broadcasters. Thunderbird\u2019s vision is to produce high quality, socially responsible content that makes the world a better place. The company develops, produces and distributes animated, factual and scripted content through its various divisions: Kids and Family Division (Atomic Cartoons), Factual Division (Great Pacific Media), and Scripted Division (Thunderbird Productions). Thunderbird also has a division based in the United Kingdom dedicated to establishing partnerships with production companies to develop the Company\u2019s intellectual property (IP) and growth in key international territories. Thunderbird is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @tbirdent. For more information, visit:\u00a0www.thunderbird.tv<\/a><\/p>\n

Thunderbird\u2019s Kids and Family Division<\/strong><\/p>\n

Atomic Cartoons is the kids division of Thunderbird Entertainment Group. Recognized internationally as one of the leading animation studios in North America, Atomic employs 650 artists in Vancouver and Ottawa. Since its founding more than 20 years ago, Atomic has worked with partners such as Marvel Animation, Netflix, Disney, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., Lego, Mattel, Spin Master and Nelvana to name a few. Atomic’s productions include the Emmy-award winning Beat Bugs,<\/em>the recently premiered Disney show 101 Dalmatian Street<\/em>, the upcoming Netflix series The Last Kids on Earth<\/em>, Counterfeit Cat, Minecraft Mini Series, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, Max & Rub<\/em>y and LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit. <\/em>\u00a0For more information, visit: http:\/\/atomiccartoons.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For further information, please contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Investor Relations Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucas Cahill and Freddie Leigh<\/p>\n

Phone: + 1 604.683.3555<\/p>\n

Email: investors@thunderbird.tv<\/p>\n

Media Relations Contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julia Smith, Finch Media<\/p>\n

Phone: +1 604.803.0897<\/p>\n

Email:\u00a0 julia@finchmedia.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nadine Westerbarkey promoted to Head of 2D Animation and Chris Buckley promoted to Head of 3D Animation VANCOUVER \/ July 23, 2019\u2013 Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV:TBRD) (\u201cThunderbird\u201d or the \u201cCompany\u201d), a global multi-platform entertainment company, is pleased to announce two senior appointments at its kids and family division, Atomic Cartoons. Nadine Westerbarkey has been … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThunderbird Entertainment Announces Senior Appointments at its Kids and Family Division - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2019\/07\/23\/thunderbird-entertainment-announces-senior-appointments-at-its-kids-and-family-division\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thunderbird Entertainment Announces Senior Appointments at its Kids and Family Division - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nadine Westerbarkey promoted to Head of 2D Animation and Chris Buckley promoted to Head of 3D Animation VANCOUVER \/ July 23, 2019\u2013 Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. 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