Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Sony Pictures Entertainment communications chief Robert Lawson has been promoted to head of all corporate communications for its Tokyo-based parent Sony.
The choice to move Lawson, who joined Sony amid the infamous cyber attack and email leaks at the entertainment group in 2014, into the top corp comms role is indicative of Sony’s significant focus on its entertainment divisions within the company’s larger portfolio; movies, music and gaming accounts for more than half of Sony’s revenue and profit.
Tapping Lawson also gives Sony’s corporate team in Japan stronger ties to the US-based divisions. He will begin his new role April 1, reporting directly to Sony Group chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida, but remain LA-based and part-time as head of SPE comms for the next few months as the company transitions and names a successor.
Lawson was named chief communications officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment in summer 2015. He soon restructured PR efforts across entertainment so that motion pictures and television worked in the same division and collaborated closely.
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