James Brightman Thursday 8th January 2015 Share this article Share

The Pokémon Company International (a subsidiary of The Pokemon Company in Japan) has announced the appointment of Monika Salazar as the new director of licensing. In the role, Salazar will aim to develop deals for the Pokémon brand in the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand, and she will support the company's development of its merchandise licensing program with strategic planning, business development, sales, and marketing.

"The Pokémon brand has an incredibly enthusiastic and passionate global fan base," Salazar said. "I look forward to creating new and innovative ways for fans to share their love for Pokémon."

Salazar has over 15 years of management experience in lifestyle licensing, marketing, and product development, and she most recently served as Director of Global Integrated Marketing at Hasbro, where she managed seven top brands such as My Little Pony and Transformers. Prior to that, she worked at MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, developing creative strategies for product development on brands like SpongeBob Square Pants and Dora the Explorer.

Despite being around for the better part of two decades, Pokémon remains incredibly successful both in the games market and other sectors. In addition to the recently released Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire games for the 3DS, there's the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online iPad app and the Camp Pokémon app for kids on the iTunes App Store. The Pokemon Company said that "to properly scale with anticipated growth in the coming years, the company is expanding its licensing capabilities across existing and new business channels."

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