Crawford Communications’ Paul Hansil stepped up as the company’s President and COO. Hansil will manage operations on all of Crawford’s services – film, video, audio, satellite communications, and internet services. With over 30 years experience in the television industry, Hansil joined Crawford in the early 90’s and then left in 1995 to work for Accom, an equipment manufacturer in California. In 1998 he returned to Crawford as Vice President and COO, in time to spearhead the company’s move into an entirely digital facility.

In their Post Production Department, Crawford has two new account executives, Melissa Donovan and Richard Martz. Martz has over 24 years media experience, having produced hundreds of long form programs and commercials for ad agencies, broadcast TV stations, corporations and educational institutions. He has also managed and operated several studios, equipment rental, and post production facilities. Prior to joining the Crawford forces, Martz was employed by SDS Group as an Account Executive. Before that, he was the Southeast Region Manager for GTE VisNet.

Before coming on board for Crawford Post Production, Donovan worked in the film and video department of iXL as Sales and Promotion Specialist and Video Sales Executive responsible for the company promotions and sales support. She began her production career at Crawford as a P.A..

Crawford Satellite Services has seen some changes as well. Brian Roland was promoted to Director of Network Operations; Ed Deckert was promoted to Director of Teleport Operations and Special Projects, and Paul Edwards was hired as Manager of Transportables.

David Warner steps up into his new role, Director of Post Production Engineering. He was Chief Engineer of the company’s film operations, formerly called The FilmGroup, for the past nine years. Before joining Crawford, he worked as Assistant Chief Engineer at Video Tape Associates.

Crawford Communications’ work is hitting the National Geographic Channel. A series of 13 one hour documentaries examining compelling figures in the history of exploration, “Treasure Seekers,” hit the channel earlier this year. Crawford Post Production provided all film transfer services, video editing, audio mixing, original music, sound design, computer graphics and effects, animation, art direction, motion control effects, and studio production services for the series. The documentaries took two years to produce and complete. Crawford’s work began in May 1999 and was completed in December 2000. The series began airing in January and continued through mid April. One of the programs, “Tibet’s Hidden Kingdom” has already won a Cine Golden Eagle Award. As far as awards go, Crawford brought another in for their spot for Haverty’s Founder’s Sale. The 2001 Bronze Telly celebrated the work of Kirby Hamilton, Producer/Director; DC Cardinali, film transfer; Curtis Elder, Henry; Tom Fulks, Fire/Inferno; Dave Wilson, audio; Gary Milgrom, Post Coordinating Producer; Maggie Wheeler, Designer. The series was co-produced by Crawford Post Production, JWM Productions, and National Geographic.