Ramon Escobar, the former VP of live news programming at MSNBC and later EVP of Network News at Telemundo, has been named VP of talent recruitment and development at CNN. Escobar, who will be based in New York, will report to Amy Entelis, who joined CNN in January after running talent development at ABC News.
The newly-created Talent and Development department is overseen by CNN EVP Mark Whitaker. Entelis is the executive in charge of recruiting and developing talent, developing new programming and overseeing acquisitions strategy for CNN, HLN and other CNN platforms. Vinnie Malhotra, formerly of ABC, oversees program acquisitions and development for CNN and HLN out of Los Angeles.
The department is also bringing on Lizzie Kerner as director of development. Kerner, a Sundance Channel alum, will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Malhotra.