Starz Entertainment Group Announces Recent Hires, Promotions in Affiliate Sales and Marketing

Starz Entertainment Group Announces Recent Hires, Promotions in Affiliate Sales and Marketing

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) announced today the promotions of Brian Swanson to director, point of sale and Eric Neal to director, affiliate sales and marketing. In addition SEG announced the recent hire of Christopher Hogan as director, affiliate sales and Tonya Hall as senior director, direct response marketing. All four will work out of the corporate headquarters in Englewood, Colo.

Brian Swanson has been promoted to director, affiliate point of sale from manager, affiliate sales. In his new position he will oversee all corporate and field point of sale activity for the Charter and Adelphia accounts. Swanson came to SEG in 1997, where he worked in the field on point of sales, and was promoted in 2003 to district manager where he worked closely with Charter's western division to help launch Starz On Demand and Starz HDTV. He will report to Tom Gove, division vice president, affiliate sales and marketing.

Swanson came to SEG from ExecuTrain in Atlanta, Ga. He holds a BS of science in speech from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and currently resides in Denver.

Eric Neal has also been promoted on the affiliate sales team to director, affiliate sales and marketing from senior analyst, strategic planning. He will direct sales and marketing efforts related to the EchoStar account. Neal will report to Bill Giorgio, senior vice president, affiliate sales and marketing, and will also be responsible for subscriber and revenue growth initiatives. He has been with SEG for over two years and started in the finance group where he focused on programming acquisition analysis, and was instrumental in developing long range programming projections and analysis.

Neal joined SEG from ORUS, an information technology consulting and outsourcing company, where he served as regional director responsible for sales and operations functions. A Denver, Colo. native, Neal has a BS in business and finance from University of Colorado, at Boulder, Colo.

Chris Hogan has joined the affiliate marketing team as director, affiliate sales and marketing. He will report to Tom Ramsey, division vice president, affiliate sales and marketing and is responsible for several national division accounts including the cable and telecommunications affiliates. Hogan will also work to identify opportunities to market and sell SEG and their product portfolio. A cable industry veteran boasting 20 years experience, Hogan worked eight years in Europe for UnitedGlobalCom and most recently was the vice president of Residential Video, Voice, and Data in Oslo Norway. Prior to joining SEG Chris worked for ECET International, a software development startup, that built communications products for the Cable industry. Chris served as president of ECET USA where he was responsible for launching and running the business in the United States.

Hogan hails from Bristol Conn., and attended Central Connecticut State University where studied Management Information Systems. He currently lives in Castle Rock, with his wife Mary-Kate and sons Zach and Dillon.

Tonya Hall has joined the marketing communications team as senior director, direct marketing. In this position, she is responsible for the overall strategic and planning development for new direct marketing initiatives. Hall reports to Gery English, executive director, marketing services, and develops strategies to maximize the direct response and retail marketing promotions designed to promote the business interests of SEG. Hall comes to SEG from WideOpenWest, in Colorado Springs, where she was responsible for the launch and development of the company's sales philosophy. She also brings 15 years of successful marketing and sales management experience in the cable and communications industry. Toting a strong background in strategy, Hall has worked for industry leaders such as Continental Cablevision, Verizon and Comcast.

Hall currently resides in Castle Rock. She is an amateur photographer and enjoys the culinary arts. If she is not behind her camera, she can be found in Colorado Springs with her family.

Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) is the largest provider of premium movie services in the United States with approximately 174 million pay units. SEG offerings include the Starz Encore Movie Pack with 13 digital movie channels and more than 750 movies per month, Starz HDTV, Starz On Demand, and Starz Ticket, the first and only on-demand premium TV subscription service available on the broadband platform. Starz Entertainment Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, www.starz.com.

Contacts: Alesya Holick Corporate Communications Specialist 720-852-6033 alesya.holick@starz.com

Source: Starz Entertainment Group LLC

CONTACT: Alesya Holick, Corporate Communications Specialist of Starz Entertainment Group LLC, 720-852-6033, alesya.holick@starz.com

Web site: http://www.starz.com/

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