A dear friend and
colleague to those whose lives she touched, Karen
Flischel, here! Networks' general manager and former
managing director for Nickelodeon International,
passed away last week following a bravely fought
battle with brain cancer. She died peacefully in her New
York home with her partner of 20 years, Kim (Bunni)
Luck, at her side.
Before her tenure
with here! began in 2004, Flischel oversaw management
and operations of Nickelodeon's international
channels and other businesses, which included program
sales and licensing and merchandising activities.
During her 20
years with the company, the New York-based Flischel handled
its offices in New York, Miami, Madrid, London, Singapore,
and Sydney, and she helped increase growth of
Nickelodeon's children's television
programming to reach 300 million households in 149
territories worldwide.
Having first met
Flischel in the mid '90s while she was building out
Nickelodeon Australia, here! president and chief operating
officer Andrew Tow remembers Flischel as a creative,
energetic woman with a playful side -- one who once
transformed a run-down old school bus into a rolling cow
facade and play area for children. The school bus was also
his initial introduction to Flischel's genius
grassroots marketing and advertising plans for
Nickelodeon.
In a letter he
wrote honoring Flischel following her passing, Tow fondly
recalled many years of friendship and good food and wine
that he and his wife shared with Flischel and her
partner, Luck, along the way.
"Karen was
a thoughtful, intelligent, happy, caring person who put the
welfare of others ahead of her own," Tow wrote.
"While, to her great dismay, her condition
affected her ability to contribute as much as she
would have liked during her tenure at here! Networks,
I'm sure all of you were in some way touched by
her strength and intelligence. I am grateful to have
known her, and better off for the privilege."
This November,
POWER UP, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit lesbian- and
gay-run organization that produces LGBT films and has helped
foster many women's directing and producing careers,
honored Flischel as one of its Ten Amazing Gay Women
in Showbiz for 2008. (Tracy E. Gilchrist,
SheWired.com)
