Retirement

One of the longest-serving Guild reps in Hollywood is hanging up his spurs.

Ron Kutak, the longtime national executive director of IATSE Editors Guild Local 700, will retire on November 1. He will be succeeded by Cathy Repola, the guild’s Western executive director.

Kutak, 66, is the longest-serving chief executive officer of any union in Hollywood. He came to the guild in 1981 as a videotape rep, and was named executive director four years later. “I think I left the union in a better place than I found it,” he told Deadline.

He certainly left it bigger and stronger. Under the direction of then-IATSE president Tommy Short, Kutak oversaw the merger of the Local 776, the Editors Guild in Hollywood, and Local 771, the Editors Guild in New York, to form one national Editors Guild, Local 700. ...

I've known Mr. Kutak for years. He's tough, clear-eyed, and a savvy negotiator. He's served his members well.

And Ron has been involved with animation for years, being one of the labor reps who was at the table when The Secret Lab contract with Walt Disney Animation Studios was born back in 2000. Mr. Kutak has also been a long-time negotiator on the union side for the Sony Pictures Animation collective bargaining agreement agreement.