Industry veteran David Burke has been named chief marketing officer at Laika, the Hillsboro, Oregon-based animation studio behind movies such as Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. He joins from Universal Pictures, where he was general manager for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since 2006.
Laika is the creator of the Oscar-nominated animated features Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls, in addition to Missing Link, which was released earlier this year.
“Dave Burke is an extraordinarily talented marketing professional with over two decades of global movie business experience,” Laika president and CEO Travis Knight said Thursday in a statement. “As we continue to build our studio and the Laika brand, Dave’s counsel and leadership will be of immeasurable value.”
Throughout his career, Burke has planned releases on more than 380 titles, including 60 that debuted to No. 1 in the Ireland and Northern Ireland markets, as well as all four Oscar-nominated Laika films.
Prior to Universal, Burke worked with Irish independent film distributor Clarence Pictures, the distribution arm of Little Bird and Eclipse Pictures. He had also handled third-party promotions at Halo, where he worked with Twentieth Century Fox and United International Pictures.
Burke is a former chairman of The Industry Trust, an entity that promotes the value of copyright and creativity in Ireland’s film, television and video industry.
