3 HYBE executives, including Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, were selected for the “2023 Variety 500”
On Dec 20th (local time), the American pop culture magazine Variety announced the “2023 Variety 500” list, which includes HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, HYBE CEO Park Ji-won and HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun.
Variety has been selecting and announcing the 500 influential business leaders leading the global media industry every year since 2017. This marks the first time that 3 executives from a single Korean company have been selected simultaneously. This is Chairman Bang’s third appearance on the list, CEO Park Ji-won’s second, and Scooter Braun’s sixth.
Variety highlighted Chairman Bang’s achievements, “HYBE isn’t just for K-pop fans anymore. Early in the year, the company acquired hip-hop label Quality Control, which brought the world the likes of Lil Baby and Migos, while November saw Bang announce the launch of HYBE Latin America, based in Mexico and led by Exile Content Studio founder Isaac Lee, who joined HYBE’s ranks when it acquired his company. In a joint venture with Geffen, HYBE recently unveiled the final six members of its first global girl group, Katseye, picked from some 120,000 submissions. The company aims to harness the creative potential of artificial intelligence through the newly announced Project L, a music production project that is an outgrowth of a 2021 investment Bang made in AI company Supertone. He also collaborated with Scooter Braun on the solo debut of BTS member Jungkook, which topped the Hot 100 singles list and reached No.2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.“
Regarding CEO Park Ji-won, attention was given to the solid multi-label system and artists’ achievements through it. Variety wrote, “While each of BTS’ members are pursuing solo projects, the group’s 10th-anniversary release, ‘Take Two’, became its seventh No.1 album on the Billboard Global 200. That’s a record, with runner-up Bad Bunny topping it three times. Two of the BTS crew, Jimin and Jungkook, each took songs to the top on the Hot 100 this year, while another member, Agust D (Suga), made his first solo appearance on that chart. In all, HYBE earned 15 placements on the Hot 100 in the past 12 months to go with the 11 albums that entered the Billboard 200 in that same window, with K-pop groups Seventeen, TXT and Enhypen contributing to that success. HYBE’s global fan-engagement app Weverse continues to grow, scoring more than 100 million downloads and 10 million monthly active users who tap into more than 90 artists from South Korea, the U.S., Japan and other territories.”
About CEO Scooter Braun, Variety mentioned, “Braun led HYBE’s February acquisition of Quality Control, home of such hip-hop stars as Lil Baby and Migos. He and HYBE chairman Bang Si-Hyuk partnered on A&R for the solo debut of BTS member Jungkook, which saw single ‘Seven (feat. Latto)’ set several streaming records — including fastest to reach 100 million streams at Spotify then fastest to hit a billion — while reaching No.1 on iTunes in 100 countries, the U.S. among them.“
Source: Daum
