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VIZ Media Announces a Leadership Transition: Ken Sasaki Named Chairman, Brad Woods Appointed CEO

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VIZ Media

VIZ Media has announced a major leadership transition as Ken Sasaki moves into the role of Chairman & Executive Advisor, and Brad Woods is appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This change marks an important moment for VIZ Media, reinforcing its position as a global powerhouse in Japanese pop culture.

Ken Sasaki: An Instrumental Leader In VIZ Media’s Growth

As CEO for 13 years, Ken Sasaki transformed VIZ Media from a specialty publisher into the leading force for Japanese pop culture in the West. Under his leadership, VIZ forged landmark industry partnerships, pioneered digital strategies, and helped propel manga and anime into the mainstream across North America, UK & Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Now, as Chairman & Executive Advisor, he continues to shape the company’s strategic direction as it enters its next phase of global expansion.

Ken holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Keio University. He has also worked extensively in both Japan and the United States.

Brad Woods: Driving the Next Phase of Global Growth

As VIZ Media’s new President and CEO, Brad Woods brings over 25 years of experience in entertainment, marketing, and brand strategy, including a decade at VIZ Media, where he played a key role in transforming manga and anime into mainstream entertainment. With a strong background in franchise expansion, digital innovation, and consumer engagement, Woods has led record-breaking sales initiatives, strategic brand partnerships, and VIZ’s expansion across publishing, digital media, streaming, and consumer products. Previously, he held senior leadership roles at Mattel, DreamWorks, and Warner Bros. Entertainment, leveraging his expertise in franchise management, digital transformation, and global brand growth. He holds an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business and a BS from the University of Arizona.

VIZ Media Invests In Anime Start-Up Company KITSU

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kitsu-logoKitsu, a startup changing the way the community experiences anime, has announced that it has raised six hundred thousand dollars in a seed round between San Francisco, California-based entertainment company VIZ Media, LLC, and Manila, Philippines-based entrepreneur Bernard Chong. Kitsu will use these funds to build out its world-class content discovery platform at kitsu.io, led by Kitsu founder and CEO, Josh Fabian, who started the project under the Hummingbird name. Josh previously was Lead Designer, Groupon Stores, and Lead Designer, oBaz.

As part of the investment, Bernard Chong as well as Brad Woods, VIZ Media’s Chief Marketing Officer, will join the Kitsu board. VIZ Media’s Rob Pereyda, Vice President of Business Development, led the deal at the company and will serve as Senior Advisor.

Built atop the modern web frameworks Ruby on Rails and Ember, the Kitsu platform (formerly Hummingbird) will remain open-source and be available to other entrepreneurs to use to drive their own discovery and social capabilities. The seed round investment from Bernard Chong and VIZ Media coincides with a ground-up rewrite and redesign of the Kitsu platform, now placing a greater emphasis on the social component of a user’s experience.

While a key selling point of the platform for many users has been the functionality to track the anime and manga they’ve seen and are planning to see, “Version 3” of the platform heavily focuses on the social aspect, leveraging a robust machine learning engine to surface content users will be more likely to enjoy, including not just one-to-one, show-to-show recommendation pairings, but sophisticated taste-based content cohorts (interest clusters).

Brad Woods Named CMO for VIZ Media

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VIZ Media CMO Brad WoodsVIZ Media has announced that Brad Woods has been named as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Woods will be responsible for developing a range of marketing and product strategies to expand the VIZ Media brand and omni-channel marketing for titles across all company imprints.

Woods joins VIZ Media from DreamWorks Animation, where he served as Senior Vice President leading the domestic consumer products and retail business development divisions. During his tenure at DreamWorks, he restructured and substantially expanded the studio’s consumer products business, led the U.S. licensing and retail teams, and also provided strategic leadership for breakthrough marketing programs on properties including Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How To Train Your Dragon.

Over his 20-year career, Woods has held senior positions in the entertainment and multi-media industries with companies including Mattel and Warner Bros. Entertainment. His experience spans a wide variety of marketing and licensing operations such as product marketing, brand development, corporate marketing and communications, lead generation, channel relations, and digital and social media marketing. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, and a BS from the University of Arizona.