UK-based distributor Beyond Rights is bolstering its sales team with the hire of Kate Stevenson as VP of sales to build its reach in France, CEE, the Middle East and Africa.

Stevenson starts in June after finishing up a contract as senior sales manager for Aardman Animations, where she’s been in charge of distributing proprietary and third- party content internationally. In her new role at Beyond, Stevenson will handle a catalogue that includes animated series Beat Bugs and Nina & Olga, as well as live-action hybrid The World According to Grandpa.

She reports to Sarah Bickley, who was herself promoted from SVP to head of sales in March, replacing Simona Argenti when she left in November.

Before starting on contract at Aardman in January, Stevenson worked in various content sales roles at 20th Century Fox for more than a decade. Her last title there was sales director, and she was responsible for managing all rights across Europe and Russia.

Bickley has also promoted two other members of her team, moving Joanna Rowley up from VP to SVP of sales for the UK, the Nordics and Italy, and giving Lenneke de Jong the same bump for Benelux, Germany, Latin America and Iberia.

Rowley joined the company full time on May 1, after consulting on factual and scripted sales in the UK. She’s a former sales consultant for Distribution360 and worked at Fox Networks Group Content Distribution before that, handling National Geographic programming as executive director of sales.

For her part, de Jong has been at Beyond for close to two years, but served in sales roles at Endemol, DCD Rights and TCB Media Rights earlier in her career.