Making official what had been rumored for some time (see 'Marvel's Version of Kill Bill'), Marvel announced on Tuesday that it was hiring Dan Buckley as Publisher and that former President of Publishing and Consumer Products Bill Jemas was moving to Chief Marketing Officer, a new, non-executive position.  Buckley will be responsible for Marvel's core comic and graphic novel publishing operations, including editorial, sales, and marketing, and report to Gui Karyo, Marvel's EVP of Operations and CIO.  Karyo will handle the fiscal and operational management of the publishing business.

Buckley, who Marvel EIC Joe Quesada described as 'one of my closest friends for years,' was most recently VP-Operations and Communications at advertising giant Omnicom's Radiant Group, which specializes in sports, entertainment, and 'all other levels of emotional brand building.'  According to its Website, Radiant Group uses 'experiential marketing' tactics such as field teams, mobile marketing, travel promotions, and events to accomplish the marketing goals of its clients.   Before his six years at Radiant, Buckley worked at Marvel for seven years in a variety of positions, including international publishing and marketing.   Quesada also says of Buckley that, '...[W]hen Marvel Knights was in its infancy, he was instrumental in our success.'

These moves complete the disassembling of Bill Jemas position as President of Publishing and Consumer Products, which has now effectively been divided into three pieces.  The process began with the hiring of Tim Rothwell as President of Worldwide Consumer Products in August (see 'Marvel Hires New Licensing Czar'), which handed over the consumer products portion of Jemas' portfolio to the new specialist.  And now Karyo and Buckley are splitting the rest, with Karyo taking the higher level work and Buckley the more hands-on publishing work. 

Among the goals listed by Marvel for Buckley in his new role are improvement in the 'quality and distribution of its primary comic products,' and the expansion of Marvel's fledgling prose program (see 'Marvel Launching Fiction Line').

Jemas' new position as Chief Marketing Officer will be 'focused on expanding synergies between Marvel's three operating divisions' (licensing, publishing, and toys).  Marvel also announced that the Chief Operating Officer position, previously held by Jemas, would remain vacant.