Fred Rogers Productions Appoints Christopher Arnold As COO

Non-profit children’s entertainment outfit Fred Rogers Productions has named Christopher Arnold as its Chief Operating Officer.

As COO, Arnold reports to President and CEO Paul Siefken. He is succeeding long-time company COO Kevin Morrison, who is retiring.

Known for its namesake PBS show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the company was founded in 1971. It has gone on to create the popular PBS Kids series Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Odd Squad, and Peg + Cat. The behind-the-scenes setting of Mister Rogers Neighborhood is depicted in Sony’s upcoming holiday movie release, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which stars Tom Hanks as Rogers.

Arnold previously was General Counsel and VP of Human Resources for Pittsburgh-based Schell Games, a full-service education and entertainment game development firm. At Schell, he was responsible for developing relationships with partners such as The Walt Disney Company, ILMxLAB, The LEGO Group, Yale University, Google, and Facebook. He had previous stints at pharmaceutical company Mylan, Guru.com and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

“We are delighted to welcome Chris to our ‘Neighborhood,’” Siefken said. “He’s coming from a world-class game developer, Schell Games, and his valuable experiences and fresh perspective will help us to further strengthen our operations and lead to the company’s continued growth and success.”