Angry Birds  developer Rovio has announced a strengthening of its consumer products licensing team with a round of hires and promotions.

Randi Spieker, is joining the Finnish flock as the VP of licensing and retail for North America.

Spieker leverages 20 years of licensing experience, with key posts at Mattel Consumer Products and Paramount Pictures Consumer Products.

Joe Lawson has been picked up as the VP of licensing and retail for Asia, Pacific, and Latin America. Lawson brings 19 years of entertainment experience industry with him, and has worked at DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox.

Finally, former Warner Bros. Consumer Products UK exec Paul Bufton will be brought on as VP of licensing and retail for EMEA.

Moving up, looking out

In addition to the three new hires, Rovio also announced the promotion of two-year veteran Naz Cuevas to the post of executive VP of global consumer products licensing.

Speaking on the appointment, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed praised Cuevas' track record and stressed the importance of the team’s expansion.

"She has lead innovation through the integration of the digital and physical worlds and most importantly ensured that our products continue to offer enormous delight to our fans," Hed began.

"I'm also very proud to announce that Naz's team has been reinforced and that we are strengthening our support to developing territories," he concluded.

In recent years, Rovio has seen tremendous success in its licensed products business while it's struggled to ignite the same fires with the physical telepod toys created for Angry Birds Go.

[source: Rovio]