Current TV has expanded its affiliate sales team with the appointments of Kristen Dean Hilbert and Diana Stengel, each as vice president of distribution.
The two new positions follow the spring appointment of Courtney Menzel as executive VP of affiliate sales and mark the beginning of her aggressive investment in building an infrastructure that will support the growth of the network and build stronger relationships with the affiliate community, the network said.
"This is a unique and important moment for Current," Menzel said in a release. "In just five years, Current has grown to 60 million US homes and we are now implementing a strategy that will continue this growth. We are moving forward with ambitious plans to both extend our brand and expand our original programming. At the root of these changes is a commitment to listen to and adapt to the needs of our affiliate partners."
Hilbert and Stengel will help build and manage the affiliate sales team. They will be responsible for developing cross platform sales strategies and tactics to serve new and existing affiliate partners and will be responsible for executing a unified approach to building and nurturing strong affiliate relationships at the national, division and regional levels.
Hilbert joins Current TV from SheSpeaks, a social media company where she served as VP of business development.
Earlier she moved up through several positions in the affiliate relations department at Oxygen Media, and most recently served as VP, national accounts. Previously, she held sales positions at Comedy Central and CBS Broadcast International.
Stengel for the last two years has led digital distribution at Current TV, including building the network's video-on-demand partnerships, among other platforms. Prior to Current TV, she was director of digital media at Helio, a multi-million dollar wireless venture between Earthlink and SK-Telecom. She has also held Marketing and Advertising positions at Comcast Entertainment Group and ADD Marketing and Advertising.
