Raze Names Rafael Sandor Chief Creative Officer

Latin-centered media company Raze has named Rafael Sandor as chief creative officer as part of a move to expand its leadership team.

Former Discovery Communications ad sales chief Joe Abruzzese has joined Raze’s board of directors, Daniel Hernandez was named head of Raze News, and D. Matt Geller and David A. Stern were appointed co-heads of scripted programming.

“Raze was founded to tell the stories of a generation that has often been underserved by creating content that speaks from a unique Latin voice,” said Emiliano Calemzuk, co-founder and CEO of Raze. “We have taken an important step towards this goal with the additions of Rafael, Daniel, Matt, David and Joe. They are some of the best media and development talent who are experts in their respective fields and truly understand how to connect with audiences.”

Raze was founded in January by Calemzuk, Luis Balaguer and Sofia Vergara, with UTA and Ziffren Brittenham LLP as partners and advisors. Its first show, Her Name Was Dolores—The Jenn I Knew, aired on Univision.

Sandor had been head of TV marketing and creative at Viceland. Before that he was executive VP of marketing for the international divisions of Fox and National Geographic.

Hernandez also was most recently at Vice as a producer and correspondent for Vice News. Before that, he was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Geller produced the motion picture Remember starring Christopher Plummer and recently completed the inaugural season of Four in the Morning for the CBC.

Stern is executive producer on Amazon’s The Last Tycoon and the BBC/Starz miniseries Howards End.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.