Paris-based production company Gaumont has brought in Alex Soto to fill its newly created creative director for animation and family position.

Soto most recently served as executive of creative development for Spin Master Entertainment, overseeing Super Dinosaur for Skybound Entertainment and working on the rebrand of Bakugan.

In his new role, Soto will be responsible for the creative vision of all Gaumont series, as well as building creative teams for each project in development. Some current projects include Stan Sakai’s comic book series Usagi Yojimbo, Julian Lennon’s Touch the Earth and Heal the Earth, Molly and the Cryptos with France Television, Bionic Max with Gulli, and the Star Shards Chronicles based on a YA series by Neal Shusterman.

Soto will report to Terry Kalagian, SVP of animation and family, and work alongside Kimberly Dennison and Gaelle Guiny, VPs of creative development in the US and Paris offices, respectively. This hire comes shortly after Kalagian was promoted in June, also when Dennison was hired.

Before working at Spin Master, Soto spent two years in a directing role at Sony Pictures Animation. Prior to that, he was the supervising director on Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man for Film Ronan and served as the supervising producer for the first four seasons of Ben 10 for Cartoon Network.