Heder held various team leadership roles at SEGA from 2021 to 2022. He collaborated closely with executives in Japan to build and grow the online games business while working on many ongoing and future titles supporting all things brand and community strategy. 

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Professional Highlights:

• Launched the global PlayStation 4 versions of Phantasy Star Online 2 and New Genesis in partnership with SEGA of Japan, leading a high-profile reveal and helping deliver cross-platform play to a player base exceeding 10 million during the franchise's 10th anniversary, which also surpassed $1 billion in lifetime revenue.

• Implemented innovative social media and community engagement strategies achieving engagement increases of up to 400% across titles like Phantasy Star Online 2 and HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!.

• Optimized and re-strategized the global community marketing plan for HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! shortly after its first month of successful release, amplifying to millions of more views and record-levels of social engagement while scaling the player base to 3M+ within its first year.

• Served as a demo and booth manager for the SEGA / ATLUS sections, representing major brands such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Persona, and Phantasy Star, delivering high-quality experiences for highly passionate fanbases from around the world.

For over 4 years, Heder became a Brand Ambassador for Nintendo. He represented popular properties ranging from Pokémon to Super Mario, working with third-party publishers and developers, as well as witnessing the successful Nintendo Switch console launch.

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Professional Highlights:
• Acted as a digital brand representative during the major console launch of the Nintendo Switch. Creating buzz and excitement for iconic first-party releases like Super Mario Odyssey and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Represented Nintendo during many digital event activations such as E3 and MAR10 Day, collaborating with various corporate brand ambassadors (celebrities, media personalities, etc.) to amplify brand messaging by driving visibility for a diverse set of releases and initiatives; on top of supporting third-party hits like Shovel Knight.
• Served as a trusted product expert within the Nintendo community, educating fans on the latest announcements and hardware features while maintaining high levels of brand excitement at all times.

At the Sony lot in Culver City, Heder held a communications leadership role where he built the strategy for Crunchyroll Games. Before assuming that role, he also served as a marketing consultant and partner for Funimation. Today, both brands are combined under the Crunchyroll name within the Sony Pictures Entertainment umbrella—the culmination of his three years working with both brands.

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Professional Highlights:
• Launched and managed direct + indirect reports responsible for Street Fighter: Duel and The Eminence in Shadow: Master of Garden, achieving $50M+ in combined gross revenue for the year and 150M-200M+ cross-platform impressions across digital marketing channels while creating the brand’s first Discord initiative and establishing the senior moderation team.

• Successfully introduced and executed a series of major intellectual property cross-overs for the Street Fighter: Duel community in partnership with Capcom, including limited-time events featuring Devil May Cry 5 and Monster Hunter. These huge collaborations drove massive player engagement, ultimately accumulating more than $18 million in gross revenue.
• Oversaw the launch of Crunchyroll Game Vault, a "Netflix-style" premium mobile gaming service integrated directly into paid subscription tiers for Crunchyroll members; leading the strategy and empowering cross-functional teams to achieve 20M+ in global social reach and 100+ media placements in its debut month.
• Overhauled department operations by renegotiating external agency scope, slashing spend by 51%, shifting focus to bigger priorities, while maintaining peak performance across social media, community management, and customer experience teams.

After a successful consultancy and partnership, Heder joined the team to lead marketing communications strategy for VIZ Media and Shonen Jump brands. He managed popular intellectual properties such as Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Inuyasha, Pokémon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball Z, among many others.

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Professional Highlights:
• Marketed and executed product release campaigns for 100+ anime and manga titles across major VIZ Media imprints, including Shonen Jump, Shojo Beat, Shonen Sunday, VIZ Originals, and VIZ Signature, driving record-breaking sales and millions of views across YouTube, Twitter (X), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
• Led brand marketing for the 25th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise, overseeing campaign strategy for the manga and animated television series. Owned and executed a year-long organic social media campaign that reached over millions of nostalgic fans, supporting the brands spot as the #1 highest-grossing media franchise in the world.
• Pioneered VIZ Media’s social and community engagement approach, architecting a YouTube community post strategy that drove a 1300% increase in audience engagement which established a best-practice standard utilized by VIZ's teams today.
• Oversaw community marketing launch strategies for a portfolio of global award-winners, including the USA TODAY bestseller Ask Iwata, Junji Ito’s Eisner-winning Remina, and the Harvey Award-winning Chainsaw Man series; contributing to VIZ Media’s record-breaking 50%+ U.S. market share.

Heder was part of the live games leadership team at Nexon America. He was responsible for managing the entire global community department who executed cross-functional strategies covering major portfolio titles such as MapleStory, MapleStory M, Mabinogi, KartRider: Drift, KartRider: Rush+, and Blue Archive.

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​Professional Highlights:
• Managed up to 7-figure department budgets and all personnel decisions while steering operations for a $100M+ annual revenue portfolio, directing the execution of global community engagement strategies across NxA published titles.
• Served as a strategic advisor to Nexon Korea leadership, consulting on community management strategy for high-priority NxK titles, including the pre-development phase of Vindictus: Defying Fate and creative initiatives for Blue Archive, while fostering cross-regional collaboration within the broader Nexon corporate ecosystem.

• Unblocked a critical, year-long community initiative by utilizing personal leadership-level relationships at Discord to fast-track and secure verification status across all NxA published titles within one week of taking over the team. This helped establish stronger brand identity, expanded community growth through organic server discovery by 20%, and implemented heightened security features.
• Owned the team responsible for cross-functionally supporting the integration of major brand partnerships with BLACKPINK, Lamborghini, and Kadokawa, overseeing the strategic rollout that drove high levels of community engagement and millions of views across social and content platforms, expanding the global audience for MapleStory and KartRider: Drift.

In 2015, Heder became a business advisor for the Kingdom Esports organization. Shortly after this, he was appointed as CMO to partner with the CEO on securing high-profile partnerships with large streaming services. He also signed well-known esports news and internet personality, Jake Lucky, as well as RuneScape's #1 Twitch broadcaster and former Jagex staff, TheRSGuy.

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Professional Highlights:
• Secured a high-profile partnership with multi-billion-dollar streaming platform Twitch and emerging platforms like Hitbox, while simultaneously overseeing brand sponsorship agreements with Discord, Scuf Gaming, and Toshiba to drive growth for the esports brand and expanding its roster of creators, broadcasters, and professional players.
• Signed multiple well-known esports and content creator personalities, as well as RuneScape's #1 Twitch broadcaster, just within one month of taking on the CMO role.
• Advised and worked with the CEO to execute a variety of business proposals that highlighted the best of our offerings and players across Brawlhalla, Overwatch, Rainbow 6: Siege, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, and Smite.