Animal Planet Fills Two Key Posts With Industry Veterans
-- Rick Holzman Named Senior Vice President of Programming; Marc Etkind Joins in New Role as Vice President of Development --
December 3, 2007
(Silver Spring, MD) Rick Holzman has been named senior vice president of programming and Marc Etkind has been named vice president of development for Animal Planet and Discovery Kids Media. Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager to whom both will report made the announcement today.
Rick Holzman is an established senior-level television and new media programming executive with 15 years of experience at top-tier cable networks.
Holzman has served as Discovery Channel’s vice president of program planning and scheduling and held the cross-network position of vice president, programming strategy and forecasting. Prior to coming to Discovery, Holzman was with Universal Television Group where he served as senior vice president of the corporate strategic research division, and USA Network’s VP of Research helping to re-launch the network behind successful cable original dramas, “Monk” and “The Dead Zone.”
Holzman started his cable career at Viacom, Inc., where he worked through the ranks in various television and interactive positions to vice president and general manager of MTV online/MTV Interactive. In this role, he lead the interactive division’s integration into all aspects of the MTV brand and worked with internal groups to maximize integration of an online presence into the MTV brand.
Holzman received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College in Middlbury, Vt. and is based in New York.
Prior to joining Animal Planet, Etkind served as senior director of historical programming at The History Channel. In this position, he developed and executive produced many of the network’s original series including: “Dogfights,” “Human Weapon,” “Tougher In Alaska” and “Lost Worlds.” He also oversaw numerous specials such as: “Hippies,” “The Lost Voyage of Columbus,” and the Emmy Award winning “Ape to Man.” Etkind also played an integral role in pilot development for the network.
Previously, Etkind was the president of Pinball Productions, a Boston-based production company specializing in history and science programs.
He helped produce over a 100 hours of programming for such networks as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The History Channel. Before starting his own company, Etkind was a staff producer for the PBS series “Scientific American Frontiers” with Alan Alda. He also produced interactive exhibits, which can be seen in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and The Science Place in Dallas. His book Or Not To Be, is a fascinating collection of suicide notes by the famous, including Kurt Cobain, Vincent Van Gogh, Diane Arbus, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf and was published by Riverhead Books.
He is a graduate of Brown University and is based in New York.