Pam Lifford

Before Ms. Lifford joined Warner in January 2016, the studio’s merchandising unit in some years had no growth at all. Last year, profit increased 47 percent compared with 2015. Revenue from licensed products — Wonder Woman action figures, Harry Potter iPhone cases, Scooby-Doo pajamas — totaled $6.5 billion, an 8 percent increase. Ms. Lifford spent 12 years at Disney Consumer Products, leaving in 2012, when she was an executive vice president. (More recently she worked at Quiksilver.) Warner now concentrates on three areas: all things Harry Potter; DC Comics superheroes; and classic cartoons, including Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck) and Hanna-Barbara (the Flintstones, Tom and Jerry). The highest-ranking African-American executive at Warner, Ms. Lifford grew up in Southern California, where her father owned a small tool business. She studied fashion design at a community college but dropped out to work at a women’s clothing company, eventually going on to work for Nike and Disney.