The Motion Picture Editors Guild has landed on a new top staffer to succeed outgoing national executive director Cathy Repola.

The IATSE Local's board of directors voted on Wednesday night to promote current staff member Scott George to the role of national executive director. George, who currently serves as the postproduction-focused labor group's Western executive director, has worked at the Editors Guild since 2010 and occupied his current role for eight years.

Repola announced in August that she would be retiring on Jan. 31 after helping to steer the national union, IATSE's second-largest Local with roughly 8,500 active members, since 2016.

"Now more than ever, unionism is vital to protect the interests of workers in our rapidly changing industry," MPEG president Alan Heim, ACE, said in a statement. "The passing of the baton from Cathy to Scott ensures strong, stable leadership of the Guild for many years to come."

George began his Hollywood career as a film laboratory worker with IATSE Local 683, where he was a third-generation union member. He became a shop steward at CFI film laboratory before ascending to working as IATSE Local 683's business representative at a time when movie theaters were switching over from film to digital projection. In 2010, Local 683 merged with MPEG, at which point George joined the union's staff. In 2016, he filled the Western executive director role that Repola vacated when she was promoted to national executive director.

In a statement, Repola noted that she had mentored George for years. "Serving as National Executive Director of Local 700 has been the great honor of my career, and I am immensely pleased to be handing the reins to Scott, whom I have mentored and worked with for many years, and who is so passionate about the labor movement," Repola said.

George is taking the reins at a punishing moment for Hollywood labor as major entertainment companies continue to cut costs and U.S. production levels remain anemic. In his own remarks, George highlighted these roadblocks. "I am both humbled and honored to lead the Local as we tackle the unparalleled challenges currently facing our membership, such as the contraction of work opportunities and emerging technology." Still, he added, "I look forward to working with the Board, the membership, and our staff to further strengthen our unwavering unity and define our continued growth as an organization."

Earlier this year, MPEG hammered out its own triennial Local agreement with Hollywood studios and streamers and helped negotiate IATSE's Basic Agreement. The union represents sound editors, mixers, picture editors, colorists, Foley artists and other postproduction workers in collective bargaining with major entertainment employers.