Management Team
Cal Morrell - President
Richard J. Lowenthal - Vice President of Licensing & Business Development
Elizabeth "Betsi" Gijanto - Vice President of Marketing
Dennis Reith - Vice President of Sales
Carrie Hellwig - Corporate Counsel
Cal Morrell is an industry veteran who launched his career in consumer technology at IBM. In his 18 year tenure at IBM, he held such positions as Branch Manager in Los Angeles, and in the early nineties as Director of the IBM Multimedia Studio. Formed with the intent of selling entertainment and educational box product to end-users, he transformed the Multimedia Studio to sell through the retail channel of EB, Best Buy, Target Toy’s R us etc. He also expanded development of titles like Mammals Encyclopedia to Emergency Room and Mad Dog McCrea. He spent a year in Europe and set up a similar team to sell to the European retail chains throughout the major countries. After leaving IBM, Morrell was named Vice President of Marketing at Interplay Productions working with high profile franchises like Baldur’s Gate, Descent, Fallout and the Star Trek Series. While at Interplay, he formed a business unit within the company to service consumers directly and pioneered their digital distribution strategy. After leaving Interplay, Morrell followed his interest in digital distribution working at GameSpy and then Trymedia Systems, building a successful digital distribution network. Trymedia was acquired by Macrovision where he remained and headed up Digital Commerce Sales and Marketing as Vice President.
Richard J. Lowenthal
Vice President of Licensing & Business Development
As Vice President of Licensing & Business Development since December 2001, Richard Lowenthal oversees all acquisition of brands and licensed content, as well as the establishment of third-party co-publishing partnerships for Encore. Since December 1998, Lowenthal has secured the exclusive, interactive rights to world-class brands and content including Sony's Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy, Hasbro's Monopoly & Scrabble, US Playing Card's Hoyle, Marvel's Daredevil, Sesame Street, Family Tree Maker, Crayola, National Geographic, and Prolific Publishing's Marine Aquarium. Lowenthal also spearheads the company's third-party co-publishing business through international partnerships with companies such as PC Tools (Spyware Doctor), JoWooD Productions, Ascaron and Monte Cristo. In addition, he has negotiated over 250 licensing agreements with such well-known companies as Atari, Ubisoft, THQ, Disney, Electronic Arts, Punch Software, Riverdeep, IBM, and other top-tier publishers. These relationships have helped secure Encore's position as top ten North American publisher of quality software.
Lowenthal joined Encore in April 1997 as a Product Manager and was quickly promoted to Senior Product Manager, where he oversaw the licensing and release of numerous successful product lines before becoming Licensing Manager, and eventually head of all licensing and strategic business development for the company. For the three years prior to Encore, Lowenthal was the Marketing Manager for a high-tech consumer electronics company as well as a sales & marketing representative for a software firm specializing in high-end practice management software systems. Lowenthal graduated with high honors from the University of Texas in Austin with a B.S. in Aerospace engineering, earning the school's prestigious Presidential Scholarship.
Elizabeth "Betsi" Gijanto
Vice President of Marketing
Betsi Gijanto has been a member of the Encore Marketing team since April 2000. Throughout her term at Encore she has held various leadership positions within the product marketing team and has ushered hundreds of PC and game console products to the North American retail channel. Recent efforts include business and partner management for key brands such as Monopoly, Scrabble, The Print Shop, Advantage, Mavis Beacon, and Adventure Workshop as well as spearheading Encore’s evolving value business initiative. In her role as Vice President of Marketing her primary focus is to drive revenue through product innovation, expand the reach and relevancy of Encore’s current brands to new channels and platforms and to mobilize the organization to deliver top-tier content that satisfies the demands of retail, mobile, and digital consumers worldwide.
Prior to joining Encore, Betsi held various marketing and sales positions at Interplay Productions in Irvine, California and Microware Distributing in Albany, NY.
Dennis Reith
Vice President of Sales
Dennis Reith, Vice President of Sales for Encore Inc., joined the company in May 2007 and is responsible for the execution of all major sales initiatives in Retail, OEM, International, and alternative markets.
Prior to joining Encore, Dennis spent 3.5 years with Topics Entertainment, first serving as Director of Distribution, and most recently as VP/GM of Software Publishing and Business Development overseeing software licensing, production and planning. Dennis brings a deep knowledge of retail and consumer products having spent a total of 14 years at Costco Wholesale in a variety of merchandising management positions.
A Seattle native and graduate of the University of Washington, Dennis is the proud father of three and highly involved in their many extracurricular activities.
Carrie Hellwig
Corporate Counsel
Carrie Hellwig joined Encore in June 2007 as Corporate Counsel. Prior to joining Encore, Hellwig was a corporate counsel for Mitchell International, Inc., a software and hosted services company providing solutions to the automotive collision and casualty insurance industry.
Prior to working at Mitchell International, Inc., Hellwig was an associate attorney with the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP and the law firm of Cooley Godward Kronish, LLP. Hellwig is a member of the State Bar of California and holds B.A. degrees in both English and Women's Studies from UCLA and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law.