My blog
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John Parker, President & COO
Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 2:23PM / Standard Entry / Members only
John Parker contributes over 20 years of executive experience in the multimedia entertainment industry. Mr. Parker has been the President & C.O.O. of TOKYOPOP since July, 1999. TOKYOPOP obtains the rights to entertainment properties from Asia and localizes those properties and sells them as books, videos, and CD's. Products are marketed and sold through traditional channels as well as the Internet.
Mr. Parker joined TOKYOPOP after a five year assignment in Hong Kong and Taiwan as the Managing Director of KPS ENTERTAINMENT, a retailing and distribution organization for home video, music, and computer software. During his tenure with KPS, Mr. Parker was responsible for expanding the business in Hong Kong from $30 MM to $80 MM in annual sales. Further, he completed a re-structuring of the Taiwan business in 1997 in a difficult economic climate and facilitated the sale of that business to a local Taiwanese company before returning to the USA.
From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Parker was a Regional Director of Operations for BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO in Los Angeles, responsible for 76 stores and 1500 personnel. The annual revenues in Mr. Parker's territory increased from $42 MM year to $60 MM year under his leadership. Prior to 1992, Mr. Parker was part of the management team at WHEREHOUSE RECORDS in Torrance, California for seven years. Joining the company as a District Manager he rose to the position of Director of Store Operations, responsible for the administrative duties involved for 350 stores and $400 MM in annual revenues.
Mr. Parker began his career in accounting and property management with a small firm in Encino, California. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Marketing from California State University at Northridge and is fluent in Spanish, with additional language skills in Mandarin Chinese and German.
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Bill Josey, General Counsel & Vice President, Business Affairs
Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 2:22PM / Standard Entry / Members only
Bill Josey has been a business and legal executive in the entertainment industry for more than 25 years. Prior to joining TOKYOPOP, Bill served as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs at Fox Television Studios, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group, where his responsibilities included negotiation of rights, license, and co-production agreements for Fox World Productions, the international co-production and format licensing unit of Fox TV Studios, and rights, talent, and network license agreements for Fox TV Studio's television movie and reality program production units. Before joining Fox Television Studios, Bill co-founded and served as CEO of The Hollywood Experts Online, an e-learning Internet venture focused on the movie and television industry.
From 1991-1998, Bill served as Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, General Counsel, and a corporate officer of Saban Entertainment, creators of the billion dollar "Power Rangers" franchise, and Saban Entertainment's successor, Fox Family Worldwide, Inc., which combined Fox Children's Network, Fox Family Channel, Saban Entertainment, and many children- and family-oriented cable program services around the world. His responsibilities at Saban/Fox Family Worldwide spanned all of the company's diverse business activities, from television and feature production to distribution, merchandising and licensing, and broadcast operations. Prior to joining Saban, Bill was Senior Vice President of Business Affairs and Syndicated Programming at MGM/UA. During his Hollywood career, Bill also has held other senior business and legal affairs positions in the entertainment industry.
During the mid-1970s, Bill was Assistant Professor of Broadcast and Film Communications at The University of Alabama, where he taught mass media law and radio-TV-film production and management courses.
Bill began his entertainment industry career in 1964, while an undergraduate at the University of Texas, as a disc jockey and program director at an Austin, Texas, radio station. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-TV-Film from U.T. in 1970 and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Houston Bates College of Law in 1973. He is admitted to practice law in Texas and California.
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Jim De Vico, Vice President of Operations
Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 2:22PM / Standard Entry / Members only
Jim De Vico oversees the company's Human Resources, Information Systems and Administration teams. With an impressive background that includes posts at Saronyx, Inc, 1-800-Dentist and Systems Development Corporation, De Vico offers TOKYOPOP a wealth of leadership and operational expertise.
De Vico began his career in business management with Systems Development Corporation where he worked on projects for the NSA and for Burroughs' foray into the then infant personal computer industry. In 1987, he founded Computer Age Dentist with two partners, and was instrumental in growing the company into a nationally recognized brand with more than 2,500 dental office customers, several field offices and VARs. De Vico subsequently served as Vice President of Information & Technology at 1-800-DENTIST. While there, Jim oversaw the company's customized programming and telephone system, which powered a 70-seat call center that handled approximately 65,000 consumer calls a month. In 1999, Futuredontics brought its service on-line and started Smileworks.com. Jim's expertise was key to setting up the hosting of the site and overseeing the development of it. For the past three years, Jim served as the Vice President of Operations at Saronyx, Inc and was responsible for FDA compliance issues, customer services, computer security and software development.
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Victor Chin, Vice President of Inventory Control
Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 2:22PM / Standard Entry / Members only
Victor Chin contributes eight years of engineering and database management experience to TOKYOPOP's rapid growth. He developed and implemented the company's circulation infrastructure for both MixxZine, TOKYOPOP and SMILE magazines. His early subscriber database experienced 700% growth within its first year. Mr. Chin is currently overseeing the manufacture and distribution of TOKYOPOP's various product lines, including books, periodicals, CD's, DVD's and videotapes.
Previously, Mr. Chin served as the Lead Test Engineer for Boeing North American Space Systems Division. In this capacity, he helped to ensure quality control in the manufacture of U.S. space shuttle hardware. Mr. Chin's engineering skills and background readily transferred in support of his new duties involving inventory control, manufacturing and product forecasting.
Mr. Chin brings a deep knowledge and enthusiasm for manga entertainment to support the company's successful growth. Mr. Chin's personal collection of "tankoubon" (Japanese graphic novels) numbers in the thousands. He has been active in his anime pursuits since 1983 and produced American versions of anime titles prior to his position at TOKYOPOP. Mr. Chin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern California and a minor in East Asian Languages and Culture.
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Stuart J. Levy, Founder, CEO & CCO
Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 2:22PM / Standard Entry / Members only
Stuart Levy’s multifaceted entertainment background includes more than 12 years of experience in creative development, art direction, licensing, production, contract law and finance. He founded TOKYOPOP® in 1996, and through his leadership the company has become an influential youth-oriented entertainment brand and the top innovator of manga creation. Fluent in Japanese, Mr. Levy is also an accomplished author, producer, and music composer who frequently appears as a speaker at a number of worldwide events. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer at U.C.L.A, Japan’s Waseda University and Australia’s Monash University, to name a few, and holds the positions of International Committee Chairperson and Board Member of the New Media Council, for the Producer’s Guild of America.
As TOKYOPOP’s CEO, Mr. Levy has raised over $12 million in equity, and has personally negotiated and completed licensing deals with dozens of international publishing, video game, animation, music, wireless and film companies. From the introduction of the first-ever extensive manga publishing program in North America, to the development of its manga-originated intellectual properties into film, television and digital entertainment, Levy has built an international bridge that has transformed the way teens worldwide experience pop culture.
As the company’s CCO, Mr. Levy has launched all TOKYOPOP product lines, and continues to produce, create and shape content, in addition to overseeing property development and acquisitions. An artistic visionary, Mr. Levy’s production, music composition and writing talents have been the driving force behind the company’s premiere properties, such as Initial D, Rave Master and Princess Ai.
Prior to founding TOKYOPOP, Mr. Levy created, produced and published innovative digital entertainment and educational properties. Mr. Levy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics/Business from UCLA and has studied at Tokyo University and Keio University. He began his career as an attorney after graduating from Georgetown University Law Center (JD 1991) and is a member of the California State Bar.
Production Credits:
Executive Producer - TV:
Street Fury
GTO (Eng version)
Rave Master (Eng version)
Reign (Alexander Senki) (Eng version)
Executive Producer - DVD:
Initial D (Eng version)
Marmalade Boy (Eng version)
Saint Tail (Eng version)
Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School (Eng version)
Vampire Princess Miyu (Eng version)
Spring & Chaos (Eng version)
Brigadoon (Eng version)
Anime: Concept to Reality
FMW (Eng version)
High School Ghosthustlers (Eng version)
Producer – Film:
Princess Ai (in development)
Director – Film:
Princess Ai (in development)
Director - DVD
Spring & Chaos (Eng version)
Creator:
Princess Ai
Juror 13
Karma Club
Street Fury
Treasure Chess
Mixx TV
Writer:
Princess Ai
Juror 13
Karma Club
Sailor Moon
Stray Sheep
CD-ROM Best Selection ‘96
Numerous magazine articles
Composer:
Initial D - theme song (Eng version)
Reign (Alexander Senki) - theme song (Eng version)
Rave Master - theme song (Eng version)
GTO - theme song (Eng version)
Actor:
Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), Mixx TV
Translator:
Spring and Chaos, Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Ice Blade, Parasyte, Harlem Beat, Graduation (PC Game)
Web Designer:
Japanonline.com
