Gabriela Arenas serves as Vice President of Licensing, North America, for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street. Arenas oversees the strategic development, direction, and implementation of the consumer products licensing and venue merchandise activities across all major categories of goods including toys, apparel, home furnishings, stationery and gifts, as well as content driven licensing categories such as publishing, music, apps, home entertainment and podcasts.
Arenas continues to expand and diversify the organization’s consumer products’ offering so that fans across generations have new ways to enjoy Sesame Street, and create unique opportunities for them to contribute to the causes they care about. Under her leadership, Sesame Workshop’s consumer products support and amplify the organization’s philanthropic efforts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Workshop launched the Caring For Each Other, an initiative to help children and families cope, Arenas’s team developed Heroes Wear Masks — a picture book to support kids through an unusual back-to-school season. Special books, customizable apparel, and plush featuring Julia, the first Sesame Street Muppet with autism, have been delighting families and highlighting the Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children initiative since 2017. Most recently, Arenas oversaw Sesame Street’s 50th anniversary collaborations with strategic partners such as TOMS, Bombas, Out of Print, and DIFF Eyewear, who, like Sesame Workshop, also believe in giving back to families in need. Other key partners that Arenas manages include Google, Amazon, Champion, Hasbro and P&G.
Prior to joining Sesame Workshop, Arenas served as Group Director of Licensing, North America and Latin America, for HIT Entertainment/Mattel, where she successfully launched an extensive Thomas the Tank Engine consumer products program across Latin America—significantly increasing the revenue and driving sell-through in key categories of business. While at HIT, she also held the role of Vice President, Licensing, Latin America, where she managed consumer product sales, marketing and retail operations, and Brand Director, where she led brand direction and content strategies for key entertainment properties. In addition, Arenas has worked at Mattel, Inc. Fisher-Price in the capacity of Marketing Director and Senior International Marketing Manager.
Arenas earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Science, and an Executive Post Graduate certificate in Marketing from Universidad Anahuac in Mexico. She attended New York University for Global Marketing and e-Commerce Business Management. She resides in New York City with her family.