Linden Entertainment, known for celebrity clients like Vanessa Kirby and Brendan Fraser, has hired an executive dedicated to building out its brands business.
On Monday the Santa Monica-based management and production company named Jenna Jackson its first chief innovation and brand ventures officer. In the position, which she has already started, Jackson is working with co-founder Nicole King to grow the company’s ventures division and seek opportunities for clients and other high-profile individuals to partner with emerging brands as well as create their own.
She’s also working with Linden clients who are already operating their own labels, including Jennifer Garner with her Once Upon a Farm organic food line, Molly Sims with her YSE Beauty products and Hilary Duff with her Below 60 fragrances.
“We’re hearing from brands as well that they really need help understanding content, entertainment, media [and] how they intersect with talent in these really authentic and new storytelling ways, as well as talent wanting to understand how they’re intersecting with brands,” Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “Everything that Linden was doing was so forward-thinking and 2.0 in the way that they were producing, managing and having talent own more of what they are doing and the brand piece is naturally coming into that.”
Linden Entertainment is additionally planning on working with talent outside of their client base on brand opportunities and utilizing its production arm, led by CEO Riva Marker, to film promotions and other content.
Prior to Linden Entertainment, Jackson was a partner at CAVU Consumer Partners, during which time she also served as a board member for the skincare companies OSEA, Necessaire and Topicals. Recently, she worked with Sims’ YSE Beauty on a $15 million Series A funding round to enable the brand’s expansion into all Sephora stores.
Jackson has also previously advised Lady Gaga’s HAUS Labs beauty brand and Jenni Kayne’s OAK Essentials skincare label. Over the course of her career she has held leadership roles at Imperial Capital and Gap, Inc.
For at least a decade now, Hollywood talent agencies have been increasingly investing in the consumer space as they diversify outside of the traditional film and television business. But as the entertainment business has contracted in the last few years, these additional sources of revenue have become increasingly important.
“Jenna’s leadership and vision will be instrumental as we continue expanding our Ventures platform and creating meaningful opportunities for our clients,” King said in a statement. “She brings a vital forward-thinking approach to brand development and talent representation, helping Linden continue to further redefine what next-generation representation looks like.”
Linden Entertainment, co-founded by partners King and Stacy O’Neil, who lead the company alongside partner JoAnne Colonna, counts among its clients Vin Diesel, Amy Adams, Eva Longoria, Rachel Weisz, Eiza Gonzalez, Jenny Slate and Forest Whitaker, among others.
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