With Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment integrating their respective marketing departments, Nancy Kirkpatrick will resign from her post as president of worldwide marketing at Summit, which she has held for the past six years.
Lionsgate’s chief marketing officer Tim Palen will have marketing oversight of Lionsgate and Summit’s titles as well as the specialty labels Pantelion Films and Codeblack Films, the studio said Thursday.
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Kirkpatrick will exit at the end of the month. She shepherded the marketing of all five films in “The Twilight Saga,” as well as the company’s latest YA hit “Divergent.”
“Now was the right time to take the next step in integrating the marketing departments of our Lionsgate and Summit film labels as we continue to achieve significant operational synergies following the acquisition of Summit Entertainment two years ago,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said in a joint statement. “Under the leadership of our innovative chief marketing officer Tim Palen, we will continue to develop fresh marketing strategies that strengthen our brand, cultivate new film properties and leverage our existing franchises into exciting new businesses.”
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“Nancy has successfully completed the mission we asked her to perform two years ago, maintaining the momentum of a vibrant slate of Summit Entertainment films, culminating in last month’s blockbuster launch of the first film in our new ‘Divergent’ franchise,” continued Friedman and Wachsberger. “Nancy is a consummate professional and a skilled and intuitive marketing executive. She has been a key member of our motion picture family for years, and she will be missed.”