Jon Rutherford

Jon Rutherford is the President, Boat Rocker Studios, for Kids & Family and Rights, overseeing Boat Rocker’s diverse selection of kids, family and animated productions, and global distribution operation and business development across all genres and platforms. In addition, Jon also runs the company’s strategic growth across ancillary revenue and brand/franchise partnerships, with a specific emphasis on children’s content, including Disney Junior’s, Dino Ranch and BBC Children’s, Love Monster. A veteran in the media industry, Jon was instrumental in combining Boat Rocker’s content, distribution and brands teams under the consolidated ‘Boat Rocker Studios’. Over his 20+ year career, Jon has established an excellent reputation for cultivating strong global alliances with leading broadcast networks and streaming services. Recent highlights include continued growth on global sensation, The Next Step, and co-financing and spearheading new original brand franchises with kids & family series, Dino Ranch (Disney, CBC), Kingdom Force (CBC, Warner), Remy & Boo (NBCUniversal), Get Even (BBC, Netflix) and Daniel Spellbound (Netflix).

Prior to joining Boat Rocker, Jon was the executive vice-president of distribution & business development at Tricon Films & Television, growing its catalogue to over 5,000 hours across scripted drama & comedy, factual & lifestyle, and documentary. Jon also supervised the growth of Tricon’s kids & family division (The Next Star, Counterfeit Cat, Go Away Unicorn), established new partnerships in unscripted production (Hip Hop Evolution, Restaurant Makeover), and managed the company’s expansion into scripted drama and comedy (Sanctuary, Sensitive Skin). Prior to joining Tricon, Jon was head of distribution at Portfolio Entertainment, overseeing their catalogue of popular children’s and lifestyle entertainment (Cat In The Hat), and was operations manager at Technicolor Creative Services, and worked on such premium feature films and television series as X-Men, Fight Club, and Degrassi.