Tom Ascheim Named President, ABC Family

Veteran television and magazine executive Tom Ascheim has been named the new president of ABC Family, it was announced Wednesday by Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group, to whom he will report.

Ascheim, who has served as executive vice president and General Manager of Nickelodeon Television and CEO of Newsweek, will start in his new role effective immediately.

In commenting on the announcement, Sweeney stated, "I knew Tom during my time at Nickelodeon, and always thought he was an incredibly smart, strategic executive. Since then, he has only reinforced my opinion of his abilities. Whether in print, television, or the financial sector, Tom has gone from success to success. He has a proven capability of leading creative teams, and I'm thrilled that he'll now bring his innovative, entrepreneurial spirit to bear on behalf of ABC Family and the Disney/ABC Television Group."

Ascheim added, "I had the pleasure of working with Anne at the beginning of my career, so when she offered me the opportunity to join the enormously talented team at ABC Family, I jumped at the chance. While ABC Family has accomplished so much already, I'm very confident that we have only just begun to tap its full potential."

Ascheim began his career assisting an independent film producer at Geoffrey Drummond Productions and became a Financial Analyst at Silver Screen Management before joining Viacom in 1990.

In his first role with Viacom as VP of Nickelodeon Business Development and Media Products, Ascheim was responsible for strategic and long-range planning, market analysis, and the annual budget. He built the business and launch plans for new digital TV channels and drove new licensing deals.

Through a series of internal promotions, Ascheim later served as the EVP and General Manager of Nickelodeon Digital Television Networks. In this role, he managed all aspects of the brand including production, development, programming, online, on-air promotion, marketing, and advertising sales. He also led the negotiation between Nick and Sesame Workshop, which resulted in a joint venture and the creation of Noggin; and oversaw The N, a channel dedicated to serving millennials.

Ascheim ultimately served as EVP and General Manager of Nickelodeon Television where he managed the complete portfolio, including Nickelodeon, Nick@Nite, Nike Jr., and Nick's three digital networks. Lastly, he repositioned Nick@Nite away from being simply 'home of the reruns' to the driving brand in Nick's new family strategy.

In 2007, Ascheim left Viacom to join Newsweek as Chief Executive Officer where he oversaw all global operations, web and mobile sites, regional magazines in US, Europe, Asia and Latin America. In this role, he successfully led the effort to sell Newsweek and worked with the new owner to execute the merger with The Daily Beast.

After four years at Newsweek, Ascheim joined Sesame Workshop as Chief Strategy Officer, and served as the EVP of Sesame Learning. Specifically, Ascheim led the team which developed a new digital, in-school and companion-home offering, premised on pairing differentiated learning solutions with in-school assessment. Additionally, he oversaw the development of Jigsaw, a new device agnostic adaptive engine which will deliver Sesame's whole child curriculum for young children and parents.

Ascheim currently serves as President and Founder of the consulting firm TEA Lane Media.