WEtv has fortified its production team, hiring CarolAnne Dolan as vice president of nonfiction development and production and elevating Theresa Patiri.
Dolan, who has been an executive producer at New Zealand production company NHNZ, creating specials for Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet, will have oversight for the creation and development of new original programming, including casting, editorial content and production staff. Dolan, who is not related to the family that owns Rainbow Media parent Cablevision Systems Corp., also worked in documentary programming at A&E for more than eight years.
Women’s-targeted WE also promoted Patiri to vice president of production management and operations. In her new post, Patiri, who has been with the network for more than seven years, most recently as director of production management, operations and administration, will manage original production business affairs, notably deal negotiations, talent contracts, rights and clearances, budgets, international and domestic program sales and day-to- day production operations.
Before joining WE parent Rainbow Media, she was a television operations and production services coordinator for NBC’s News and Entertainment Operations.
“We’re confident that CarolAnne’s wealth of expertise in television production will translate seamlessly into our WE tv original programming and we’re thrilled to welcome her to the team,” Steve Cheskin, senior vice president of programming, production and packaging, said in a statement. “Theresa has a proven track record of great success at the network already and will continue to be a valuable asset moving forward.
“We look forward to both CarolAnne and Theresa playing an integral role in expanding the strategies for development and production for WEtv originals,” he noted.
