Jairo Alvarado, who stepped right out UCLA and stepped into a job as a Warner Bros creative exec 18 months ago, is leaving next month to become a manager at 3 Arts. The 24-year old Alvarado said he wasn’t thinking of a career change before a general meeting with 3 Arts’ Tom Lassally, another Warner Bros exec who made the career transition after he exited the studio. “We discussed all the short films I advocated and spread around to agents, and it turned into a three-hour conversation with Tom saying, `You’ve got to meet Erwin,” Alvarado said. He spent another two hours with 3 Arts chief Erwin Stoff, and walked out with a job offer.

Alvarado traveled a charmed path to get to Warner Bros. He’s a local kid who was recruited in high school by the studio, which provided a scholarship that included summer industry internships. After graduation, he met with former production president Kevin McCormick, and got the job offer for a CE position. While there isn’t much glamour in those entry level executive posts, Alvarado said he said he’s helped about a dozen young directors get signed during his 18 month Warner Bros stint. He was an early advocate of Fede Alvarez’s short Panic Attack, which was acquired by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, and Ricardo De Montreuil’s The Raven, which is also in deal talks. “I’ve discovered I like finding new talent the town responds to,” he said. Stoff said the management company has made it a priority to find fresh voices, and Alvarez has a nose for it. “In his new career as a manager, he will have the opportunity to build lasting and nurturing relationships with the kind of talent he has successfully advocated in he past,” Stoff said. Alvarado starts the new career track July 19.

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