Cookie Jar’s Sam Ewing will have to adjust his French accent from Quebeçois to Parisian now that the company has moved him to the French capital to open up a worldwide sales head office. Working as head of distribution, Ewing will now manage all international sales and co-production activity for the company from his one-person office in Paris, and his first priority will be to find European broadcast homes for Gerald McBoing Boing and The DoodleBops.

Ewing has worked out of Cookie Jar’s head office in Montreal, Canada since joining the company last summer, but the California native insists he didn’t move across the ocean to avoid the city’s notoriously bad winters. Instead, the decision stems from the fact that an increasing number of Cookie Jar’s sales are coming from France. He adds that the move allows him to be on hand to support broadcasters face-to-face, plus he’ll be able to keep on top of changes in the Euro buyers’ schedules by actively watching their channels.

And taking advantage of Canada’s treaties with many territories in the EU, Ewing will be on the ground to seek out and pursue new co-production opportunities. ‘I’m close to all the major [treaty] countries, so it’s really the perfect locale,’ he says.

Ewing will also manage Cookie Jar’s newest international hire, Alison Warner. This former commercial director of Brit animation studio Skaramoosh will handle sales and regional co-production relationships out of London, England as Cookie Jar’s VP of distribution for the U.K., Eire, Northern Europe and Africa.