Portfolio Entertainment shared the sad news today (Friday, June 9) that the studio’s co-founding partner & CEO, Joy Rosen, has died. The warmly remembered animation executive passed peacefully on June 8, surrounded by family. She was 65 years old.
Rosen and long-time colleague, friend and business partner Lisa Olfman founded Portfolio in 1991. Launched in a spare bedroom with a borrowed typewriter, Rosen and Olfman transformed their ambitious startup into a leading production, distribution and animation company of kids and family entertainment with a roster that includes the Daytime Emmy-nominated PBS series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That!, starring Martin Short, Hero Elementary, Doki and Groundling Marsh.
“We at Portfolio are heartbroken” says Olfman, Portfolio’s co-CEO. “Joy was my partner, my best friend, my sister-in-arms. Words can’t describe what a huge loss this is to her family, her friends, and to those in the business community who knew her. We will miss her tremendous heart, her wicked sense of humor and her buoyant optimism. A piece of us died today, but we will forever honor her legacy.”
Rosen led Portfolio’s global distribution division and molded it into a top player. Recognized for her intelligent deal-making and enduring relationships with both international broadcasters and content providers, Rosen was a consummate entrepreneur. Her strategic vision and indefatigable optimism were instrumental in the company’s multi-faceted expansion and in 2015 the partners launched Portfolio Animation, a state of the art animation studio.
Among her many industry distinctions, Rosen, together with Olfman, was awarded the 2015 WIFT-T Crystal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Business, the Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and was named in Profit Magazine‘s Top 100 Female Business Owners and Animation Magazine’s Top 25 Rising Women in the Business.
Born October 2, 1957 to Delores and Harry Rosen, Joy Lori Rosen was married to Dr. Lawrence Freedman for 39 years, and mother to Erin, Michaela and Evan Freedman — her children being, she always said, her greatest achievement. Rosen is also survived by her siblings Paula (Stephen Toope) and Eric Rosen (Rachel Nelson), and predeceased by her father.
Donations in Rosen’s memory can be made to the nurses of the Princess Margaret Hospital at the Ontario Nurses Association’s Local 097 and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
