Klein joined Valiant as a Sales Manager in 2014 and held that position until late 2016. He was rehired as Valiant’s Director of Sales earlier this year (see “Valiant Hires Director of Sales”). As Director of Sales, Klein also played a role in marketing efforts, developing tactics, press collaborations, email campaigns, and more. Prior to and concurrently with Valiant, Klein worked at comics retail giant Forbidden Planet in New York City.
Freeman began at Valiant in 2012, when he joined as Sales Manager (see “Valiant’s Atom! Freeman Talks Relaunch & Retailers”). He was promoted to VP of Sales in April (see “Valiant Promotes Four Staff Members”), and in May he left to found Prana: Direct Market Solutions, a marketing agency dedicated to supporting comics retailers.
The Valiant management team underwent a number of changes in the wake of an acquisition in January, which was followed by the departures of Chairman Peter Cuneo, CEO and CCO Dinesh Shamdasani, COO Gavin Cuneo, Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons, and Vice President Marketing and Communications Hunter Gorinson. The company has also been hiring and promoting, bringing in Executive Editor Joe Illidge and Director of Marketing Mel Caylo (see “ICv2 Interview: The New Valiant Management Team”), adding a number of other new marketing folks, hiring Lysa Hawkins as editor (see “Valiant Hires Lysa Hawkins”), and promoting Karl Bollers (see “Valiant Entertainment Promotes Karl Bollers”) and Robert Meyers (see “Valiant Promotes Robert Meyers”).