Mun2 All-Star Creative Team To Spearhead Network’s Re-launch.

Antoinette Zel, Senior Executive Vice President Network Strategy at Telemundo, announced that mun2, the bilingual network that celebrates the lifestyle of Latino young adults, has hired a team of award-winning creative personnel and respected veterans of Latino television and music to spearhead the network’s re-launch efforts both on and off air. The new hires are a fundamental component of the network’s overall strategy to become the leading provider of originally-produced, innovative and quality-driven shows for all U.S. Hispanics ages 12 to 34.

“The team we’ve hired consists of pioneers in the bicultural space, who understand the nuances of Latino youth and how to reflect them honestly,” said Zel. “These talented guys are an irreverent bunch who live and breathe the US Latino experience and who I know will make mun2 a home of creative excellence.”

Heading up mun2’s in-house creative team is award-winning Ricardo de Montreuil who joins as the network’s creative director of on air promos and off air. De Montreuil has spent most of his career as a Senior Creative at MTV Networks Latin America, overseeing the overall design and content of MTV channels throughout the region. With a rich creative background that blends film, TV, advertising and print media, de Montreuil recently completed his first feature film, “La Mujer de Mi Hermano” (My Brother’s Wife), which was acquired by Twentieth Century Fox for major distribution in Latin America and by Lions Gate Films for U.S. theatrical distribution. “My Brother’s Wife,” based on a novel by Peruvian author Jaime Bayly and co-starring Barbara Mori and Christian Meier, was one of the top 3 most successful Latin films in Mexico in 2005.

Additionally, De Montreuil has won several Promax and BDA Awards for his achievement in TV creative and art direction and has directed award-winning music videos for artists like Andrea Echeverri, Plastilina Mosh and Nicole. He has also achieved recognition in advertising direction and was the first Latin director participating in the nationwide anti-tobacco “TRUTH” campaign. De Montreuil has also directed several commercial spots for high-profile companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and MTV. His “Hewlett Packard” commercials were nominated at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in France. Under his direction, mun2 has already begun to develop a new image for the network that is more reflective of its Latino youth audience.

Also joining the creative team are Federico Gutierrez and Jose Wolff.

Gutierrez comes to mun2 from Wired magazine, where in six years he helped reshape one of Condé Nast’s most innovative and successful titles. During his tenure, Wired won numerous design and editorial awards, including the 2005 National Magazine Award for general excellence. Also during that time, he helped develop Condé Nast’s new magazine Cargo.

While designing an award-winning monthly magazine, Gutierrez also directed music videos for Plastilina Mosh and consulted for MTV Latin America, Hewlett-Packard and Gap. His illustrations have appeared in Wired, Sleazenation and Dazed & Confused.

Joining mun2 as a creative consultant, Wolff’s career background includes local and international advertising as well as television and film projects. Previously, Wolff worked at MTV Latin America where he was an on air graphics and promos senior producer. He has produced award-winning advertising campaigns for companies such as Hewlett Packard and the nationwide “TRUTH” pro-social initiative. Wolff’s work in television has won numerous Broadcast Design and Promax awards and his work has been published in books and magazines on the subject of design and motion graphics.

A music industry veteran, Wolff has directed various music videos for internationally-known artists. Additionally, he has directed promotional pieces for MTV Video Music Awards Latin America and MTV Movie Awards Mexico. Wolff was recently involved as director of photography and creative consultant for a film project with director Rodrigo Piza, based on a novel by Mexican writer Guillermo Fadanelli.

The newly-hired creative team will be based out of the network’s new corporate headquarters at City Walk in the Universal Theme Park in Los Angeles. The move from Miami reinforces mun2’s commitment to Latino youths by centering itself in the number-one Hispanic city in the U.S. and creating a network more national in scope and more reflective and inclusive of the Latino population from coast to coast. The move also allows mun2 to tap into the creative communities in L.A., home to a pool of established and up-and-coming Latino artists and celebrities, and take advantage of the synergies with parent company NBC Universal. By 2006, 90% of all mun2 productions will come out of the new L.A. headquarters.