Crunchyroll appoints Lai-Hung
May 13, 2020
Crunchyroll, the global anime brand, has appointed Julian Lai-Hung as the Head of Content Strategy & Business Development focused on Japan and Asia-Pacific.
Lai-Hung’s appointment is the latest in a string of senior hires at Crunchyroll. Earlier in the year, the brand boosted is executive leadership team with the appointments of Alden Budill as Head of Global Partnerships and Content Strategy, Terry Li as Head of 360 and General Manager of Crunchyroll Games and John Easum who took on the newly created role of Head of Crunchyroll EMEA following the acquisition of VIZ Media Europe.
Lai-Hung’s career in video streaming spans original production, licensing, and acquisition having spent time at Netflix where he helped launch the service in Japan and oversaw the global anime category as Director of Content and Anime in the region, and at Warner Bros., where he led a team as the VP of International Digital Distribution and Global Sales. While at Netflix, Lai-Hung was also an executive producer and dealmaker across a number of titles, including Terrace House Aloha State, Million Yen Women, Godzilla: Monster Planet, Kuromukuro and Blazing Transfer Students.
“We unveiled Crunchyroll Originals earlier this year as a complement to our robust anime library, with the goal of exciting our existing fans while inviting the anime-curious into our vibrant community,” said Alden Budill, Head of Global Partnerships and Content Strategy. “Given Julian’s deep expertise and passion for the medium, he’s the perfect addition to our team to progress our efforts to identify new partnerships and creative opportunities.”
Based in Tokyo, Lai-Hung will focus on building out Crunchyroll’s content strategy, driving the originals initiative and identifying new business opportunities with existing and new partners.
“I have a deep respect for Anime creators and I am thrilled to be joining the biggest anime brand on the planet. I can’t wait to work with our partners in Japan to keep delighting fans across the globe” said Lai-Hung.