9 Story Media Group has appointed Katrina Hitz-Tough as SVP of franchise strategy and marketing. In the newly created role, she will lead the Toronto-based company’s recently established franchise management division.

Hitz-Tough started this month and reports to chief strategy officer Natalie Osborne. She will work closely with 9 Story’s in-house consumer products division, led by co-VPs Kristin Lecour and Kyra Halperin. Hitz-Tough most recently served as SVP of brand strategy and marketing at Sony Pictures Entertainment, but she has also previously worked at The Walt Disney Company and Mattel.

This hire follows the promotion of Candice Chambers to VP of franchise management, and Nygia Hearn’s appointment as director of franchise management, as 9 Story continues to grow the new division.

In one of its first moves to build out this side of its business, 9 Story bought a minority stake in UK children’s publisher Knights Of, gaining first-look rights to the company’s books for AV, merchandising, theatrical and ancillary development.