Disguise, Inc., a global costume company and a division of toy manufacturer, JAKKS Pacific has announced the organization of its senior leadership team in EMEA.
Disguise brings on industry veterans Tony Lewis and Lynda Morris to head up expansion and recruitment efforts to build an EMEA team of costume experts across sales, design and marketing.
David Carscadden, currently the managing director of JAKKS EMEA, and 12-year executive at JAKKS, will now lead both Disguise and JAKKS teams in EMEA. He will focus on leading both divisions and strengthening distribution channels and retail partnerships for Disguise’s vast range of costumes and fancy dress as well as leveraging JAKKS expertise in roleplay and dress up. His UK-based teams will be led by Tony Lewis for sales and marketing and Lynda Morris for design and development.
Tony Lewis has officially taken on the role of sales and marketing director in EMEA. A costume industry veteran with 30 years of experience with companies like Christy’s, Amscan and Character World, Tony will bring extensive expertise to the Disguise division. He will be working closely with JAKKS to build and develop retailer and buyer relationships across the whole of Europe, while growing the list of dress up clients for both Disguise and the JAKKS team. He heads up all forecasting, planning, and joint ventures as well regional and local sales teams, building and developing the customer and wider distribution base. He is currently recruiting an experienced costume sales and business development team for the UK & EMEA.
Lynda Morris will be bringing decades of design and management experience within the children and adult apparel space as well as seven years of experience in Halloween with Rubie’s to her new role as design lead for UK and EMEA. She will work in tandem with Tony Lewis and JAKKS teams on forecasting, safety testing and presenting concepts and styles to licensors and customers. She will also build out a creative and development team in the UK to ramp up for design this year and production in 2022. Her new team will take on the task of creating hundreds of styles for Disguise’s existing and new licenses.
Dan Cooney, EVP of JAKKS Pacific, said: “We are excited to continue to expand our presence in EMEA. An enhanced dress up and roleplay line is a natural complement to our strong toy portfolio.
Tara Hefter, president and GM of Disguise, Inc. added: “This year we have been focused on maximising our existing licenses and building structure for new brand acquisitions to be announced soon. With the recent awards of some large licenses with a global scope, it made sense to hire in industry talent and start growing our team now. With Tony and Lynda leading the business, we have the groundwork ready to develop and expand into new regions and countries quickly. We can activate faster on new licenses and brands and bring these incredible new costumes and accessories to retail for all major dress up holidays in EMEA.â€
