WildBrain has appointed veteran entertainment and securities lawyer Mark Trachuk as general counsel.

Trachuk begins effective immediately and will oversee corporate and securities legal affairs, as well as serve as corporate secretary to the company’s board of directors. He is based in Toronto and reports to WildBrain president and CEO Josh Scherba.

He succeeds outgoing EVP, general counsel James Bishop, who has accepted another opportunity, according to a news release.

Trachuk has more than 35 years of experience in corporate and securities law. Most recently, he served as counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright, where his focus was mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances and corporate governance.

He was worldwide group general counsel and corporate secretary at Entertainment One (eOne), and was part of the executive team that conducted the sale of the company to Hasbro in 2019 for approximately US$4 billion.

Prior to that, he was a senior partner in the Business Law Group at the Canadian law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where he practiced from 1989 to 2018.

Trachuk has also sat on several boards in the entertainment industry and other sectors, including Thunderbird Entertainment, eOne and Playmaker Capital. He currently serves as the lead director on the board of mining company Almonty Industries, a global miner of tungsten and other critical minerals.

Scherba said in a statement that Trachuk’s “depth and range of experience in the entertainment industry and capital markets has given him a skillset across business, strategic and regulatory matters that makes him uniquely suited for our company.”

Trachuk added: “Their outstanding portfolio of world-class IP, including Peanuts, Teletubbies and Strawberry Shortcake, and unique capabilities across content creation, audience engagement and global licensing positions WildBrain as a global leader in family entertainment, and I look forward to working with the entire team on the exciting journey to unlock value for the company and its stakeholders.”

Image courtesy of WildBrain