is a Japanese–born American engineer and businessman. He established

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

, a company that distributes

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

in Canada and the United States. He served as its president and chairman until 2019, where he stepped down. As of October 2011, Fukunaga was named chairman of online video game publisher GameSamba.

Biography

Fukunaga was born in Itami, Hyōgo,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and grew up in

West Lafayette West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister c ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He graduated from

West Lafayette High School West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School (also informally known as West Side High School or simply West Side) is the only high school within the West Lafayette, Indiana, West Lafayette city limits, and is administered by the West Lafayette Communit ...

in 1979. Fukunaga attended

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

where he got his BSEE in 1982 and his MSEE in 1984. He later moved to Boca Raton,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

to work as an engineer for IBM. He then attended

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...

, obtaining an MBA in 1989. He held a position with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) before getting a job with

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applications requiring maximum up ...

in Sunnyvale,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Fukunaga is also the co-founder and manager of EchoLight Studios, a Texas-based Christian television production company run by

Rick Santorum Richard John Santorum ( ; born May 10, 1958) is an American politician, attorney, and political commentator. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and was the Senate's third ...

. EchoLight initially shared office space with Fukunaga's

. Originally,

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' ''GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', ''Dr. Slump'', ' ...

told Funimation that they could not have the ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

'' series. However, Fukunaga's uncle, Nagafumi Hori, was one of the producers for

Toei Company () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by i ...

and helped him convince Toei Animation to give the license to Funimation. So Fukunaga went to a coworker named Daniel Cocanougher, whose family owned a

feed mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

in Decatur, Texas, and convinced the Cocanougher family to sell their business and invest in creating a production company. With that, FUNimation Productions was established in 1994. In 2005, Funimation was acquired by the

Navarre Corporation Navarre Corporation was an American public distribution and publishing company founded in 1983 by Eric H. Paulson. The company was headquartered in New Hope, Minnesota. Navarre owned three subsidiary companies: a software publisher, Encore, In ...

for US$100.4 million, Fukunaga still remained the company's CEO. In 2011, the company was sold to a group of investors which included Fukunaga himself. In 2017, 95% of Funimation was sold to Sony Pictures Television Networks for US$143 million, with Fukunaga retaining a 5% stake. In 2019, Fukanaga stepped down as general manager of Funimation.

Personal life

Fukunaga is married to Cindy Brennan, who also was a co-founder and former executive producer at Funimation. They have three children. He has one sister, Nina Fukunaga Johnson, who is a radiation oncologist in Michigan.

References

External links

Gen Fukunaga biography writeup
at Purdue University Alumni
Gen Fukunaga
at

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fukunaga, Gen 1962 births 20th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in the online media industry American people of Japanese descent American mass media company founders American software engineers American television executives Anime industry Businesspeople from Texas Businesspeople from Indiana Columbia Business School alumni Engineers from Texas Engineers from Indiana Funimation IBM employees People from Itami, Hyōgo Japanese emigrants to the United States Living people People from Roanoke, Texas People from West Lafayette, Indiana Purdue University College of Engineering alumni