ross@brandcentralgroup.com
Ross is an accomplished 20 year industry veteran with expertise in strategy, brand extension, innovative partnerships and retail development. His relationships span across the licensing industry from licensees, licensors to retailers.
Early in his career, Ross served as Licensing Director at the Marvel Comics. At Marvel, he generated 30% of the company’s domestic licensing revenue and started several new licensing categories including publishing, interactive and sporting goods. Subsequently, Ross served at the Walt Disney Company overseeing product, marketing and retail programs for Disney Consumer Products. There, he was responsible for much of Disney’s U.S. toy and sporting goods revenue totaling $160 million in retail sales and was also a Division Merchandise Manager (DMM) on Disney’s retail team. Next, Ross served as General Manager of New Business Development at WeddingChannel.com, the Internet’s leading wedding website.
In 2001, Ross founded Brand Central LLC, a global brand consultancy and currently serves as the company’s CEO. He sets the company’s vision and is hands-on with client strategy and implementation as well as building a best-in-class organization.
Ross has been named one of the licensing industry’s 40 leaders of tomorrow and is an active member of the licensing industry’s association LIMA where he served on the West Coast board.
jodi@brandcentralgroup.com
Jodi Bogdanoff has over a decade of experience in licensing, brand development and marketing. As Licensing Director at Brand Central, Jodi is responsible for client management, new business acquisitions, and strategic sales initiatives as she leads the company’s east coast operations.
Jodi joined the Brand Central team with experience managing major licensing programs for brands such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spider-man and Justin Bieber. She has worked on numerous retail programs and has expertise across many merchandise categories. Prior to joining Brand Central, Jodi worked at Bravado Music Group, Marvel Entertainment and 4Kids Entertainment.
janna@brandcentralgroup.com
Janna Markle brings over 25 years experience and leadership in brand marketing, innovation/new product development, and strategic partnerships. She has successfully launched equity-building and revenue-generating strategies and product lines for well-known brands bringing together consumer insights with opportunity/market analysis to develop differentiating growth building strategies.
Janna led the strategy and execution of a successful global brand consumer product program for Jack Daniel’s and Southern Comfort brands, focusing her efforts in the US, Europe and Australia. She pioneered the launch of restaurant brands in grocery with TGI Friday’s and earlier in her career she developed and executed a brand extension strategy for the sensational children’s entertainment properties, Barney the Dinosaur and Wishbone.
liza@brandcentralgroup.com
Liza comes to Brand Central with over 20 years of licensing experience in manufacture and brand representation, strategic partnerships and brand extension. As Senior Vice President, Liza oversees Manufacturing Representation. In addition to her representation and licensing responsibilities, Abrams oversees Brand Central Insights, the leading trend intelligence service in the licensing industry, providing clients with curated, custom trend reports relevant to their respective business.
Liza draws on expertise derived from positions at Sakar International, where she spent 15 years building Sakar into a household name as well as at 4Kids Entertainment, best known for representing global brands including Pokémon, Cabbage Patch Kids, World Championship Wresting and others. Liza has a proven track record of creating multi-million-dollar, consumer products programs, working with companies from Disney, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon to Unilever, Gold’s Gym, Kodak and Polaroid. During her past tenures, Liza helped garner two coveted LIMA Awards – for Artlist Collection: The Dog (License of the Year) and Crayola Digital Cameras and Video Cameras (Best Hardgoods License).
Additionally, Liza is an active member of Licensing International, serving as a Board Member from 2018-21.