Gen Fukunaga

Gen Fukunaga
Born 福永ゲン (Fukunaga Gen)
(1962-03-21) March 21, 1962[1][2]
Itami, Hyōgo, Japan
Residence Roanoke, Texas
Education Purdue University
Columbia Business School
Occupation Founder and President of FUNimation
Years active 1989–present
Spouse(s) Cindy Brennan

Gen Fukunaga (ゲン フクナガ Fukunaga Gen, born 21 March 1962) is a Japanese American entrepreneur who is the founder and president of Funimation, a company that distributes anime in the United States and Canada. As of October 2011, Fukunaga was named chairman of online video game publisher GameSamba.[3]

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 1979.

Fukunaga attended Purdue University where he got his BSEE in 1982 and his MSEE in 1984. He later moved to Boca Raton, Florida to work as an engineer for IBM. He then attended Columbia Business School, obtaining an MBA in 1989. 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 production company run by Rick Santorum. EchoLight initially shared office space with Fukunaga's Funimation.[4]

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 and helped Fukunaga convince Toei Animation to give the licence to Funimation.[5] So Gen went to a coworker named 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 Productions was established in 1994.

In 2005 Funimation was acquired by the Navarre Corporation 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.[6]

Personal life

Fukunaga is married to Cindy Brennan, who also was a co-founder and former executive producer at Funimation. They have three children.

References

  1. ↑ DBZ Uncensored: Interview With Gen Fukunaga
  2. ↑ http://www.funimation.com/blog/2014/03/21/its-gens-birthday-buy-yourself-a-present/
  3. ↑ Funimation CEO Gen Fukunaga Named GameSamba Chairman
  4. ↑ Weinstein, Adam. "Rick Santorum's Wholesome Film Studio Has a Smutty Anime Secret". Gawker. Gawker Media. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray Live Interview w/ Gen Fukunaga". FUNimation. October 6, 2011. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Navarre Sells Funimation to Group with Gen Fukunaga
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