Gen fukunaga rick santorum biography

American engineer

Gen Fukunaga (福永 元, Fukunaga Gen, born March 22, ) is a Japanese-born American engineer and entrepreneur. He established Funimation (now Crunchyroll, LLC), a company that distributes anime in Canada and the United States. He served as its president and chairman until , where he stepped down. As of October , Fukunaga was named chairman of online video game publisher GameSamba.

Biography

Fukunaga was born in Itami, Hyōgo, Japan, and grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana in the United States. He graduated from West Lafayette High School in

Fukunaga attended Purdue University where he got his BSEE in and his MSEE in He later moved to Boca Raton, Florida to work as an engineer for IBM. He then attended Columbia Business School, obtaining an MBA in He held a position with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) before getting a job with Tandem Computers in Sunnyvale, California.

Fukunaga is also the co-founder and manager of EchoLight Studios, a Texas-based Christian television production company run by Rick Santorum. EchoLight initially shared office space with Fukunaga's Funimation.

Originally, Toei Animation told Funimation that they could not have the Dragon Ball series. However, Fukunaga's uncle, Nagafumi Hori, was one of the producers for Toei Company and helped him convince Toei Animation to give the license to Funimation. So Fukunaga went to coworker Daniel Cocanougher, whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas, and convinced the Cocanougher family to sell their business and invest in creating a production company. With that, Funimation was established in

In , Funimation was acquired by the Navarre Corporation for US$ million, Fukunaga still remained the company's CEO. In , the company was sold to a group of investors which included Fukunaga himself. In , 95% of Funimation was sold to Sony Pictures Televis

As the door to the White House closed on Rick Santorum’s campaign last year, another opportunity arose for the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

A few close friends and supporters told him about Flower Mound-based EchoLight Studios, which launched in to promote and produce films with a faith-based message. The company was founded in part by Gen Fukunaga, the man behind FUNimation Entertainment, also based in the town.

Santorum joined EchoLight as a fundraiser about a year ago, and later as a member of its board. In late June, he was named chief executive, with his own stake in the company.

EchoLight’s message is familiar for Santorum, albeit through a new medium. But the administrative and communicative skills he learned in politics make him wellsuited for the job, he said.

“I was asking people, as I was traveling around the country, to be the president of the United States,” Santorum said in a recent phone interview. “So I feel I have the ability to run a movie company.”

EchoLight is just getting off the ground, working out of FUNimation’s offices and readying to test-release its first in-house feature film this fall. But the company has grand plans and wants to make its permanent home in the Dallas area.

The genesis for EchoLight came in spring , in a post on company president Bobby Downes’ Facebook profile asking him to call Fukunaga. He called, and the two met in person, Downes said, to discuss an idea both had to start a Christian film production company, one that would provide the financing, marketing, distribution and sales like a traditional Hollywood outlet.

Downes, a Christian filmmaker and founder of , said nothing had been done like that exclusively in that market.

Fukunaga had previous distribution experience in nontraditional markets. He founded FUNimation in , bringing to U.S. shores popular Japanese anim

Gen Fukunaga (Itami, Hyōgo, 21 de marzo de &#; fue el fundador y presidente de Funimation (ahora Crunchyroll) una empresa que distribuía anime en los Estados Unidos y Canadá. En octubre de fue nombrado presidente de la línea editorial de videojuegos GameSamba.&#;

Biografía

Fukunaga nació en Itami, Hyōgo, y creció en West Lafayette, Indiana en los Estados Unidos. Se graduó en West Lafayette High School en

Fukunaga asistió en la Universidad Purdue donde obtuvo su BSEE en y su BSEE en Posteriormente se trasladó a Boca Ratón, Florida para trabajar como ingeniero para IBM. Luego asistió Columbia Business School obteniéndose una MBA en Ocupó una posición con Andersen Consulting (ahora Accenture) antes de conseguir un trabajo con Tandem Computers en Sunnyvale, California.

Fukunaga también es el cofundador y director de la EchoLight Studios una compañía de producción cristiana con sede en Texas dirigido por Rick Santorum. EchoLight un espacio de oficina inicialmente compartido con Funimation.&#;

En Funimation fue adquirida por Navarre Corporation por unos millones de dólares, que todavía quedaba el CEO de la compañía. En la empresa fue vendida a un grupo de inversionistas que incluía el mismo Fukunaga.&#;

En , Fukanaga dejó el cargo de director general de Funimation.&#; Su participación restante en el capital fue recomprada por Sony Pictures cuando dejó la empresa. En , Funimation cambió su nombre a Crunchyroll LLC, después de que adquiriera un servicio de transmisión del mismo nombre un año antes.

Durante un seminario celebrado en octubre de &#; en el Centro de Economía y Negocios Japoneses de la Columbia Business School, un miembro de la audiencia le preguntó a Fukunaga por qué decidió retirarse de Funimation. Fukunaga respondió: "Honestamente, después de cobrar dos veces en la empresa, ¡ya no necesitaba trabajar para ganarme la vida!".

Vida personal

Fukunaga se casó con Cindy Brennan,