Media company Webtoon Entertainment has announced an expanded leadership team, adding David J. Lee and Yongsoo Kim to its top brass. The company is owned by South Korea–based conglomerate Naver.
David J. Lee has joined Webtoon Entertainment as chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Lee is the first enterprise-wide CFO and COO, overseeing global corporate, financial, and operations teams for Webtoon, Wattpad, and Wattpad Webtoon Studios. He will report to Webtoon founder and CEO Junkoo Kim.
Most recently, Lee served as CFO and COO of Impossible Foods, where he led the company's launch of the Impossible Burger. Prior to that, he was CFO of video game developer Zynga, and held leadership roles at Del Monte Foods and Best Buy after a stint in strategy at McKinsey.
Yongsoo Kim has been promoted to chief strategy officer. Kim will oversee global strategic investments, partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions. He will also report to Junkoo Kim.
Yongsoo Kim joined Webtoon in 2022 as head of strategy. Previously, he was principal at KKR, and prior to that, he was part of the founding team at Tesla Korea, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey.
In 2021, Naver acquired Canada-based digital publishing platform Wattpad to complement Webtoon, Naver's global comics platform. Following the $600 million acquisition, Naver merged Wattpad and Webtoon's film and television production studios under the name Wattpad Webtoon Studios, with Aron Levitz serving as president of the combined group.
The merger also created the Wattpad Webtoon Book Group, which has since grown to six imprints, including the adult imprint W by Wattpad Books and the Webtoon Unscrolled graphic novel imprint.
