He could have gone on to solidify his presence as the typical, Wall Street corporate suit as he embarked on his career in 1992 with Merrill Lynch in its Corporate Development and Investment Banking division. But he preferred to be like Bob the Builder, the nuts-and-bolts man who gave up a lucrative job to return to grassroots and build all his career all over again.
Having been drawn to films and entertainment since childhood, Doug MacLennan confronted a paradox in his job in the world of finance - the stronger his career got, the more irrepressible was the lure of films and entertainment, among his first loves. So in June 1999, after seven years at Merrill Lynch, he decided to give in to the temptation. He switched from finance to media and entertainment and enrolled as a garden-variety apprentice at the William Morris Agency Training Program in New York. He started in the mail room. It was a good place to be as it provided him with a ringside view of all aspects of the entertainment industry including film, television and publishing.
But this alone was not enough, he realised. If he was to make anything of himself in the world of entertainment - which was equally, if not more, financially driven - he needed to also learn the business ropes. So after leaving William Morris in August 2000, he decided to go back to school. He enrolled at the NYU Stern Business School to major in entertainment finance. MacLennan calls his efforts at re-orienting his career trajectory as "acquiring the tools to fill up the tool box of life".
It was at NYU Stern that he met Monica Malhotra, who was soon to be his wife, and little did he realise at the time how his career path soon would take a new turn. He finished his course at NYU Stern in 2002, was married to Monica by then and decided to live his dream of producing children's television. He co-founded Axial Entertainment and worked on it until 2005, after which he joined leading US animation company - Animation Collective in 2006.
Here he was able to participate in the creation, production and marketing of original animation characters. But the competition was tough and after a few years, he sold his interests in the company and he and Monica, who was from Dubai, decided to relocate to the UAE.
MacLennan came to Dubai in 2010 with a seed of an idea that was planted in his mind by a routine visit he made to see his daughter at a branch of Kidville US while living in New York. Monica and their nine-month-old daughter, Anaya, were attending a Wee Wiggle Giggle class. He saw parents and babies having fun as they learned and bonded with each other. Here was a great edutainment concept, he thought, bookmarking it for later consideration.
In 2010, MacLennan opened the first Kidville studio in JBR in Dubai. Since then he has set up two more - in Motor City and Uptown Mirdif.
In this pet project, he combines his passions for education and entertainment to stimulate toddlers to play while learning social, motor and literary and other skills.
Work
I feel everyone must spend the first part of their adult life acquiring many different tools in the toolbox of life. Versatility is key. My course in entertainment finance from Stern is one such tool. It gave me the courage to make the career switch, forge my new career path, helped me enjoy the pleasure of pure academics once again and also gifted me life-long friends. My wife Monica is one of them.
I was doing animation films for children's television after my Stern degree until one day I happened to visit my wife and daughter Anaya at a Kidville branch in New York. There I discovered how stimulating their approach to learning was for toddlers' development. Soon after I decided to leave Animation Collective, my wife and I decided to move to Dubai as it was her home. We decided to set up the Kidville franchise here. We came here in 2009 and we opened the first Kidville in the UAE in 2010.
I am passionate about building things. It takes years and years to build businesses in different cultures, earn trust and understanding. While I did serious corporate building at Merril Lynch, here, with Kidville, I am building young impressionable minds.
Kidville is a US-based franchise operation, a unique programme for pre-school children from nought to five years, which teaches infants/toddlers social skills within a playful setting as they transition to school. The classes are designed to stimulate their natural curiosity through dramatic play, music, building blocks, book corner, sensory and art section and small and big muscle play. A typical Kidville branch would have a section for creative classes for babies and toddlers designed by early childhood development specialists, an indoor play space, a boutique, a salon, a sit ‘n' snack area, and be able to hold birthday parties and concerts for kids. A parent or an attendant has to accompany the child enrolling at Kidville.
Working with young, creative and formative minds of little children is a unique challenge and I am very excited about it. From the very beginning the entertainment industry has had a deep influence on me. In my college days, I was a DJ at the local radio station. But I also loved the movies. The craft of movie making interested me more rather than the lure of film stars. My favourite director has been Stanley Kubrick. I would much rather watch a Kubrick film for the 11th time than sit through a new unknown release.
My time at William Morris was very interesting. It was a real privilege to land a job there. The head of human resources at William Morris explained the challenges of the job succinctly. He said, "It is like handing over to a book lover the keys to a library. What you do inside is up to you." At the Agency, I would read scripts, cover performances and also get a taste of everyday drama that is so much a part of Hollywood, whether it be a contractual dispute between producers or a call from a lead heroine who refused to go on set because she did not like the make-up man! The film industry is driven by passion and with so many creative people involved, tensions can run high.
It was a sharp learning curve for me and even today in my role with Kidville I put to use many of the core values I acquired from William Morris.
Fresh out of Stern, I got my dream job as the COO of Animation Collective, an animation studio in New York. We created original animation series that were screened on Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network, the BBC and other animation channels.
My job was to produce these shows, work on the budgeting and finance aspects, oversee the production, liaise with networks, and get the show featured. It was a great creative challenge, but financially we had to struggle to survive as an independent studio. We had a few small hits such as Nickelodeon's Global Acquisition of Kappa Mikey, which is still running every night on Nickelodeon in Arabic, but when it came to financing shows and growing as a company, we ate what we killed and that is a tough way to survive in a high-risk business.
We had no outside financing and were very measured in our growth. We could not compete with the vertically integrated companies like Disney. In other words, we could only dream to be an interesting piece of pepperoni but never the big pizza. So we sold off the company and I decided to come to Dubai.
To me work is always about integrity, be it in communication with my clients, the vendors, the parents and even the children. Integrity is one commodity that once lost, cannot be regained. I realised this as a child when I did something dishonest and it rebounded on me.
At Kidville, I do everything - from financial budgeting, to getting the rugs, the floor tiles, ceiling tile to lifting boxes.
Kidville satisfies my entrepreneurial spirit. It is a personal investment for me. I feel great working with toddlers and watching them grow. It is one of the most satisfying aspects of my work. Other kinds of businesses do not quite touch you in the same way.
Everybody fails sometimes, but the key to success, according to me, is to approach tasks with the mindset that failure is not an option. Starting Kidville meant re-learning quite a few things, and unlearning some as well.
Play
Playing with kids and watching them have fun with activities that keep their minds alert reminds me of my own childhood in Edina, Minnesota, where I spent the first 17 years of my life. I was sporty and athletic and loved playing basketball, rugby, enjoyed track and cross-country runs. Later, at the Amherst College, Massachusetts, I was the president of the rugby team and competed in track events.
One of the most memorable and sporty adventures I had was in 1991, when I spent the summer "jackarooing" on a cattle and wheat property in Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia. When I arrived in Goondiwindi, I had never ridden a horse or motorbike, cracked a whip nor shot a rifle. Fellow jackaroos derisively dubbed me "John Wayne". I must have been bucked off the horse a ten times in my first month. My misadventures on the property knocked the youthful cockiness right out of me but they also helped me acquire a new self-confidence as I learned to do a dozen things that I had never done before. It takes courage to look like a fool as you learn new things, but with it come new strengths.
I love a healthy sense of competition. If I don't have anyone to compete with, I will trump it up in my mind. Even today when I step out at night for my jog, I do not like anyone to get ahead of me. There is a sort of psychological warfare that happens at that point. I trail him 25 metres, 20 metres... before overtaking him. When I pass him, I have to speed up even more to send him a clear message! It is this sense of fair play and competition that I have put into operation in my new business. I am a team player and love a brick-and-mortar kind of set-up, like Kidville, where I get to build from the basics, rotate teachers, study manuals and watch the early education model in action as the kids get trained and taught as they play.
Dream
I have always dreamt of building something that will last beyond my lifetime - a project that is a sheer positive for the community and provides an affirmative contribution to the growth of society.
It has to be a win-win, plus-plus project that nurtures positive gains for the society and has no negatives. I see Kidville as such a project. My wife and I now plan to open branches across the UAE and then want to cover the entire GCC.
Inside info
Kidville studio Dubai locations: JBR - Dubai Marina, MotorCity and Uptown Mirdif
