Image Entertainment just announced today the hiring of three video industry veterans to fill key positions to further grow the company’s DVD business.

Barry Gordon, joining Image in the newly created position of Director of Business Development, will be charged with opening new sales and distribution channels for the Company’s growing DVD business, including the targeting of DVD sales to mass merchants and national chain stores. Gordon will also seek additional channels of distribution for Image’s expanding library of exclusive videocassette releases.

Wayne Mooney, Image’s new Director of Production, will oversee all aspects of Image’s DVD, laserdisc and VHS production. Mooney joins Image from Pioneer Video Manufacturing, Inc. where he was part of Pioneer’s original DVD authoring and compression group.

Marty Sikich joins Image as Director of Purchasing, a newly created position which will concentrate, in the hands of a purchasing expert, all of the Company’s buying and product vendor activities. Sikich’s duties will include the purchasing of DVD’s from all major studios and product suppliers. Sikich has over 15 years of video industry experience at both the corporate and retail level.

Martin W. Greenwald, Image’s President and CEO, stated, “I am excited by the tremendous experience and expertise these three individuals bring to our Company. We are experiencing a rapid expansion of DVD revenues and each position was strategically designed to enhance this growing business. We now also have the expertise to expand our existing post-production facility to allow us to do DVD authoring and compression work in-house. These talented new hires will help us further establish ourselves as a leading DVD supplier.”