YuMe Toys Bolsters Global Team with Three New Hires

Carson Murray, vice president, North America; Keren Cheung, business advisor over APAC for Maxx Group; Mariano Hernandez, vice president, Central and South America.

License Global

February 7, 2023

YuMe Toys logo.YuMe

YuMe Toys

has tapped Carson Murray as vice president, North America. Murray will be based out of the YuMe office in Toronto covering the entire region. He joins YuMe Toys from Funko, where he spent the last five years, most recently as country head, Canada.

Prior to his time at Funko, Murray held various senior sales roles at Kroeger, The Wilko Group and Dynatech Action combined for almost 20 years of toy and consumer products experience.

“Everybody knows the importance of the North American market to our industry, both in terms of strategic development and sales,” says Michael Kwan, chief executive officer, YuMe Toys. “Carson’s role is to help us develop the length and breadth of our business and ensure that we are at the top table in the future of the toy industry. These are challenging times, but also exciting ones, and we are determined to be at the center of industry progression.”

Keren Cheung has been appointed as business advisor, covering the APAC region across all Maxx Group

companies (YuMe Toys, Licensing Matters Global, Maxx Marketing). Cheung brings with her years of experience within the toy industry, having worked extensively for Hasbro and Disney. A native of Hong Kong, she moved to Shanghai in 2007, where she initially joined Disney, rising to executive director, TV and media for marketing. She then joined Hasbro as senior director, licensing for Greater China, before becoming the country manager of Hasbro China.

In her role as business advisor, Cheung will work with the group’s management to help expand YuMe Toys’ distribution network in Asia, as well as scout and negotiate for new IPs to bring to market.

“I’m excited to be part of YuMe Toys because of the innovation and creativity of our products,” says Cheung. “YuMe Toys is agile and quick to market; whenever we see a great new idea, we jump on it and our products launch quickly – this is a key differentiator in the market.’’

Mariano Hernandez joins as vice president, LATAM, overseeing sales across the LATAM region.

Hernandez spent the last five years at Funko where he was director, sales for the LATAM region. He started his career in finace and sales at multinational companies including Nestle and Bimbo Bakeries. He joins YuMe Toys with over 15 years of consumer products experience.

“We are delighted to welcome Mariano to the ever-growing YuMe team,” says Kwan. “The LATAM region is strategic to our expansion plans as YuMe continues to spread its wings, armed with new and exciting properties and product lines into new territories; I’m confident that Mariano’s wealth of experience will help turbo-charge our growth in the region.”