Robert Lawson Promoted To Tokyo-Based SVP Corp Comms Post For Sony Group

Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Chief Communications Officer Robert Lawson is being upped to SVP, Corporate Communications for the entire Sony Group. The new job will bring Lawson, a nine-year vet of the Culver City lot who was a key consigliere during the 2014 cyber-attack to Sony HQ in Tokyo, Japan, reporting to Sony Group Corp Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida.

Scroll down to read the news which was just made official to internal staff by Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO, Tony Vinciquerra.

Lawson’s successor will be named in the next few months. He’ll remain in Culver City for the next few months before heading to Japan. Lawson’s segue to the leadership team reflects the importance Sony is putting on its entertainment companies (movies, music, games) which rep 60% of the conglom’s overall profits. Big Sony wants the Tokyo HQ leadership team to reflect the global nature of its business and moving Lawson from US/Entertainment is part of that effort. Lawson led the comms team during a great period of turnaround for Sony Pictures Entertainment, read profit in 2016 was $280M when he arrived versus annual profit in 2022 of $894M. After being a consultant to SPE during the Sony Hack, Lawson was named CCO a few months later in Summer 2015. 

Lawson managed the comms team through a period of great change. In addition to Covid which forced the whole lot to work remote, the entire senior leadership changed during the exec’s first couple of years on the job (i.e. Chairman and CEO, Head of Motion Pictures, Head of Television, Head of Networks, CFO all changed). In addition, there was a vast restructuring of Sony’s television networks business. “Reimagine SPT” efforts divested unprofitable international networks, which went from over 100 channels to now about 30. While streaming, particularly during Covid, would up-end the entire entertainment industry, Sony remained steadfast to its theatrical distribution business, becoming an arms dealer of film and TV content, while its rivals invested billions in their own respective OTT services much to the dismay of debt.

Here’s Vinciquerra’s note:

Dear Colleagues,

I have some important leadership news to share.

Robert Lawson, who has led SPE’s corporate communications operations for the last nine years, has been promoted to SVP, in charge of Corporate Communications for Sony Group Corporation. In this new role, Bob will be based in Tokyo and report directly to SGC Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. 

Bob became Chief Communications Officer for SPE in 2015 after working in New York City politics and government and as a communications consultant for several major corporations, including Sony Corporation and Sony Corporation of America.  As CCO, Bob has played an integral role on our senior leadership team, overseeing our global communications operations across all SPE’s lines of business, and providing invaluable strategic advice and counsel at a time of extraordinary change at SPE and throughout our entire industry.

Arriving in the wake of the 2014 cyber-attack, Bob quickly unified SPE’s then disparate communications functions into a tightly integrated team of outstanding communications professionals who keep SPE’s successes, competitive advantages, corporate direction and priorities top of mind among our most important stakeholders.  Whether reinforcing SPE’s ongoing commitment to theatrical distribution or our position as the industry’s leading independent “arms dealer” in the streaming wars, or promoting our strategic investments in new growth areas, or keeping our global employees connected during the pandemic, Bob’s smart and strategic approach to internal and external communications and strong leadership has made SPE CCOM an essential part our overall business strategies and a key contributor of some of our greatest successes of the last decade.

Bob has always maintained a strong, collaborative working relationship with SGC leadership and across our Sony sister companies, so this promotion is hardly surprising.  And his appointment to the SGC leadership team reflects the growing importance of the US-based entertainment companies to SGC’s overall business.

The official start date for Bob’s new role will be April 1, but we will not be losing him so quickly.  He will remain LA-based, part-time in his current SPE role for at least the next few months as we transition to new leadership in our communications operations.

I want to thank Bob for his years of dedication to SPE and for being such a trusted partner to me and to our entire leadership team.  We look forward to working with him in his new role in Tokyo.

Please join me in congratulating Bob and wishing him continued success!

Tony Vinciquerra