Viral Nation, the global social media technology company, today announced the appointment of three leaders to its Viral Nation Talent division. Joining the company are Damian Skoczylas, former General Manager of The ICON Agency, as Vice President of Talent, Amanda Solomon as Director of Talent Partnerships, and Paul Telner as Head of Programming. These new hires will support the company’s vision to transform talent representation for the rapidly-expanding creator space by making a wide range of services essential to building influencers into household names available under one agency. Viral Nation’s new 360-degree monetization approach spans content creation and optimization, brand partnerships, new talent ventures, dedicated marketing, original programming, and PR and concierge support.
“We’ve handpicked an exceptional group of leaders with impressive careers in the creator space to drive key business units within Viral Nation Talent,” said Jonathan Chanti, President of VN Talent and Chief Growth Officer of Viral Nation Group. “This team is essential as Viral Nation Talent moves out of the traditional talent representation space to offer a complete 360-degree monetization engine, so our talent has the best experts and resources at their disposal to build their own empires.”
Newly appointed Vice President of Talent Damian Skoczylas has a long tenure in the creator industry, including serving as General Manager of The ICON Agency, SVP of Talent at Bottle Rocket Management, SVP of Talent at Studio71, Head of Talent Development at AwesomenessTV, and Senior Talent Manager Fullscreen. Damian will focus on deepening Viral Nation Talent’s representation of top-tier talent. The company also announced that Nick Reisch has been promoted to SVP of Talent to empower creators and bolster brand management.
New Director of Talent Partnerships Amanda Solomon has driven brand integration, influencer marketing campaigns, and talent partnerships for companies including Epic Games, OnePlus, Samsung, and Gucci. The new appointments come after the recent hire of Paul Telner—previously Director of Unscripted Development at Studio71 and Creative Director at BBTV—as Head of Programming to create original content with Viral Nation Talent. Joining Paul is Kathryn McGuire, who was recently hired as Senior Director of Talent Marketing, in leveraging over 15 years of experience in Talent Management and Experiential Marketing to build out Viral Nation Talent’s marketing services across thought leadership, hospitality services, and dedicated PR for top talent.
Dylan Scance has also joined the division as the Head of Creator Studio to help traditional celebrities transition into digital content creation. In 2018, Dylan founded Eight Seven Media, an award-winning digital media company that went on to be acquired by Viral Nation in 2022. With decades of combined creator industry experience across the new team, Viral Nation Talent stands primed to offer its talent roster one-of-a-kind representation and the opportunity to transform their content creator careers into personal enterprises.
Founded as an influencer marketing agency in 2014, Viral Nation has evolved to power the social ecosystem through integrated solutions that align strategy, talent, media and technology. Viral Nation includes full-service creative agency VN Marketing; creator and athlete-influencer management agencies VN Talent and VN Sports; and technology division VN Tech. In 2022, the company secured an initial funding round of $250 million CDN ($198 million USD) from Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Maverix Private Equity to accelerate the public release of SaaS technologies and novel AI-powered solutions.
About Viral Nation Talent
Viral Nation Talent is home to the largest creator roster in the world, developing today’s biggest social stars and redefining the relationship between talent and representation. We represent a diverse and award-winning roster of over 500 content creators, celebrities, and NIL athletes across all platforms and over 35 verticals. For more information, click here.
Viral Nation Expands its Talent Business with Key Hires and Promotions
