As part of the newly created position, Kingston will be responsible for establishing, building and successfully managing Nickelodeon’s European branded products.
In addition, Jason Easy has been named senior retail manager for the network in the UK.
This follows Jeremy Poreca's recent appointment as director of international retail development, and "underlines the organisation’s renewed investment and commitment to bolstering its retail division", according to Nickelodeon.
Michael Connolly, senior vice-president of consumer products at parent company Viacom International Media Networks, said: "Mark comes to us with a wealth of retail account management expertise and his appointment reflects the aggressive investment we're making as an organisation as a whole, but particularly in the retail arena."
Kingston will be responsible for heading up regional licensing programmes with "key partners", in close collaboration with local MTV Networks International (MTVNI) channel networks and market heads.
In addition, he will be charged with identifying and building new business regionally and, where appropriate, internationally and globally, as well as developing over-arching region-specific consumer product strategies tied to MTVNI's overall business strategy. He will report to Connolly.
Based in London, Easy will report to Trudi Hayward, Nickelodeon UK's vice-president for the UK and Australia, and retail sales and trade marketing director, Poreca.
He will oversee the day-to-day management of specified retail accounts and carry out strategic direction to achieve business goals set by the UK vice-president and director of sales.
Easy will be tasked with maximising revenue and will be responsible for developing strong relationships with licensee sales representatives, as well as buyers and senior buyers across all categories at assigned retailer partners.
Kingston joins Nickelodeon from The Walt Disney Company where he served as business unit director, responsible for all aspects of the licensed and vertical business at UK supermarket chain Tesco, while managing a team of 15 sales, marketing, retail planning and product development professionals.
Before this role, Kingston held account director posts where he worked across the Tesco, Asda, Toys R Us and Costco accounts.
Prior to The Walt Disney Company, Kingston worked at BBC Worldwide as senior national account manager for WHSmith, Waterstones and Ottakers, and began his career at Masterfoods, a division of Mars UK.
Easy previously held the position of senior national accounts manager at Konami Digital Entertainment, Japan's leading developer and publisher of popular video games.
Having also worked at Hornby and Copywrite Designs Ltd, Easy began his career with Castelli, part of the Lediburg Group.
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