Kirk Iwanowski, after serving as chief marketing officer of Epix for nearly 10 years, has left the MGM-owned premium entertainment network to join video search and analytics vendor AnyClip.
Iwanowski exited Epix in January, prior to Amazon’s announcement last month of its $8.5 billion deal to acquire MGM. At AnyClip, Iwanowski’s first initiative has been to lead the company’s rebranding with a new logo and tagline (“The Visual Intelligence Company”) as well as its website relaunch.
Last month, AnyClip announced that it had raised $47 million led by venture-capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), with participation from La Maison and Bank Mizrahi. The company, with co-headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, and New York, has raised $70 million to date.
“Kirk is a proven brand-builder with an established track record of successfully launching and scaling video companies,” AnyClip President and CEO Gil Becker said in a statement. “From launching networks to film distribution companies to OTT streaming platforms, Kirk has deep experience in collaborating with partners to launch and grow subscription-based services at scale.”
MGM acquired Epix in 2017 in a $1 billion deal with former partners Lionsgate and Sony. Prior to joining Epix in 2011, Iwanowski was SVP of marketing of Bill Pohlad’s Apparition Pictures and GK Film’s FilmDistrict. Earlier, he served as EVP of marketing at Sundance Channel, a joint venture of Robert Redford, NBCUniversal and CBS, for about a decade.
“In the post-COVID market, video proliferation is ubiquitous,” Iwanowski commented, adding that AnyClip’s opportunity is to sell solutions to not only media and entertainment companies but also to businesses across all industries.