As CEO at Patencio Development since 2018, John specializes in the provision of sales, marketing, brand management, licensing, and advisory services for pop culture product brands seeking to expand their distribution of toys, collectibles, and lifestyle products across the Americas, Asia, and Europe. In recent times, leading into and beyond the COVID era, an enormous focus on the implementation of livestreaming, direct-to-consumer e-commerce, kawaii (cute Japan-inspired products, mainly targeting girls) marketing, and new product development initiatives has been a priority. Key clients past and present include Studio Ghibli, Shibuya Scramble Figure (an Estream division from Japan), 100% Soft (Marvel and Dumpster Fire lines), Usagi Yojimbo and its Netflix show, Juguetimax in Mexico, the national specialty retailers Hot Topic and Box Lunch, Beast Kingdom in Taiwan, Bedrock Collectibles in Canada, Remow in Tokyo, The Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult (a digital collectibles project), Kotobukiya, Espada Art, specialty retailers JapanLA and Sure Thing Toys, Brand3P and their marketplace sales program, and the Academy Awards museum.
A veteran international executive with broad experience in wholesale and retail marketing, John had previously been the President of Bluefin Distribution (now Bandai Namco America) in launching and expanding the North American distribution and brand management of Bandai, Studio Ghibli, Good Smile, Capcom, and many other of the best toys and collectibles from Japan. He led the purchasing and establishment of a 50,000 square feet warehouse, DTC operations, and office facility in Southern California, along with the installation of a cutting-edge ERP system for distribution operations. Within four years, company sales grew from $9M to nearly $60M, and expanded distribution from 200 to over 20,000 stores in multiple retail channels.
Earlier, John was the Vice President of Development for Diamond Comic Distributors, the market-leading distributor for the independent comic book and collectibles industries, where he created and established programs for the sales and distribution of pop culture toys and collectibles for over 700 manufacturers for dozens of product categories in more than 70 countries, generating annual sales in excess of $200M. John previously spent 12 years as the President of Japanese pop culture pioneer, TOKYOPOP, responsible for the early trends that led to the enormous success of the anime and manga categories in Europe and North America. This created a new market for girls as comic consumers in North America, Germany, the UK, and dozens of other countries. John started his career in specialty chain store retail in California with responsibility for over 100 stores and 1,500 employees, while later operating a retail chain of over 50 stores in Hong Kong and Taiwan for five years. He has operated businesses in Asia and Japan for nearly 30 years and in Europe for over 25 years.
Featured in: From TikTok to Target: How Gen Alpha discovers licensed brands
