Jon Rutherford

President, Global Rights, Franchise & Content Strategy, Boat Rocker Studios
Boat Rocker Studios

Following Temple Street’s 2015 expansion under the re-branded name of Boat Rocker Media, Jon Rutherford joined the organization to build the distribution division globally across all platforms and genres. A veteran in the media industry, Jon oversees the recently formed global sales and acquisitions operation, Boat Rocker Rights, in addition to managing the company’s strategic growth in ancillary and brand revenues across multiple platforms. Over his 20+ year career, Jon has established an excellent reputation for cultivating strong international alliances with leading broadcast networks and services around the world. Recent highlights include the recent acquisition of FremantleMedia’s Kids & Family division (Bitz and Bob, Danger Mouse), building further brand and audience growth on global sensation, The Next Step, and co-financing and spearheading new original animated series’, Remy and Boo and Kingdom Force.

Prior to joining Boat Rocker, Jon was the executive vice-president of distribution and business development at Tricon Films and Television, growing its catalogue to over 3,500 hours of high quality content in genres such as scripted drama & comedy, factual and lifestyle, documentary, and kids and family. Jon also supervised the growth of Tricon’s kids and family division.

Prior to joining Tricon, Jon was head of distribution at Portfolio Entertainment, where he strategically sold and marketed their catalogue of popular children’s and family entertainment, including the launch of their flagship pre-school PBS series, Dr. Seuss’ The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That! Prior to Portfolio, Jon was operations supervisor at Technicolor Creative Services, and worked on such premium feature films and television series as X-Men, Fight Club, Chicago, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Anne of Green Gables.