Robert R Yamashita

Current

• Co-Founder and Managing Director at Cogentic, LLC

Past

• Vice President - Strategy and Business Development at THX Ltd.
• Senior Director - Consumer Electronics at DivX Inc. (formerly DivXNetworks)
• Senior Director - Strategic Marketing and Business Development at Zoran Corporation

• Sr. Director - Strategic Marketing and International Standards at Zoran Corporation
• Principal Consultant - Corporate Strategy/Digital Media at PriceWaterhouseCoopers
• Director - Strategic Alliances at Sony Electronics
• Director - Encoder Products at C-Cube Microsystems

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Education

• California Institute of Technology

Recommended

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Connections

453 connections

Industry

Venture Capital & Private Equity

Robert R Yamashita’s Summary

Co-Founder/Managing Director of a strategic advisory and investment services firm focused on the new media ecosystem, with 13 years as a technology/business executive at Media & Entertainment (M&E) and Consumer Electronics (CE) companies.

Performance-driven, visionary and collaborative leader of teams that first guided DivX into CE (key to its $625M IPO in 2006); brought world’s first network DVD player to market (Digital5/Zoran, 2002); helped generate over $300M of new revenue for Sony (1998-2000); and introduced a new video format for C-Cube (1996-97).

Deep practical knowledge of digital media business and technology, gained through over 15 years of experience in roles, including consulting, product line management, and marketing.

Robert R Yamashita’s Specialties:

• Strategic Advisory and Investment Services (VC, M&A)
• Intellectual Property Licensing, Valuation, and Sourcing
• Corporate Business Development and Alliance Management
• Media & Entertainment (M&E)/Consumer Electronics (CE)
• Integration of Digital Media and Enterprise IT Architectures
• Digital Media Technology (DAM/MAM, DRM, VOD, MPEG)
• International A/V Standards and Industry Forums

Robert R Yamashita’s Experience

• Co-Founder and Managing Director

  Cogentic, LLC

  (Management Consulting industry)

  March 2004 — Present (5 years 5 months)

  Determine strategic direction, generate new business, and lead key engagements. Directly closed over $2M of engagements and over $200M of capital raise projects with clients across the M&E and CE industries.
  
  SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS
  
  • Sony Pictures: Engaged by the V.P. Digital Media to create business case and “go-to-market” strategy to productize internal technology for managing digital dailies.
  
  • Nero: Special advisor to the President on strategy and alliances to monetize their core intellectual property including H.264, MPEG-4 AVC, DRM and content management tools.
  
  • Konan Digital: Defined and executed strategy to develop US and Europe regional markets for Konan's Media Asset Management (MAM) product.
  
  • Strategic Vision Consulting: Brought in as DAM and video standards (MPEG, SMPTE) expert on technology strategy engagement for a major Hollywood studio.
  
  • Digital 5: Worked with President and VP Sales to deploy network DVD technology to IC partners and CE OEMs.

• Vice President - Strategy and Business Development

  THX Ltd.

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Consumer Electronics industry)

  September 2006 — October 2007 (1 year 2 months)

  THX has tremendous brand equity, built atop a foundation of uncompromising dedication to quality. THX has one mission: Maximize quality of the value chain that connects the content creator to the content consumer.
  
  Brought in as both a strategist and a catalyst to develop new business, and define strategies for both extension and expansion. Positioned the company for growth in digital media, as well as increased focus on IP licensing. Negotiated deals that should double THX revenue in 24 months.

• Senior Director - Consumer Electronics

  DivX Inc. (formerly DivXNetworks)

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; DIVX; Computer Software industry)

  November 2002 — February 2004 (1 year 4 months)

  Engaged directly by the CEO and lead VC to establish CE business unit, plus develop and execute the penetration strategy to drive DivX software into CE platforms (DVD, PVR, settops). Established partnering strategy and forged key CE alliances, ranging from IC vendors to OEMs. Helped grow revenue from $2M (2003) to $8M (2004).

• Senior Director - Strategic Marketing and Business Development

  Zoran Corporation

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; ZRAN; Semiconductors industry)

  October 2001 — November 2002 (1 year 2 months)

  Specifically recruited by VP/GM of Zoran's largest division to direct strategic marketing and alliances, with the goal to grow both revenue and profit within 12 months.
  
  • Developed strategy and product/technology roadmap for DVD
  • Established strategic plan to grow DVD from $120M to $200M
  • Engaged partners in adjacent technologies and services
  • Led program for world’s 1st networked DVD player (4Q-2002)
  • Managed IP licensing and represented Zoran on standards bodies

• Sr. Director - Strategic Marketing and International Standards

  Zoran Corporation

  (Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  2001 — 2002 (1 year)

• Principal Consultant - Corporate Strategy/Digital Media

  PriceWaterhouseCoopers

  (Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Management Consulting industry)

  May 2000 — August 2001 (1 year 4 months)

  Principal strategist/digital media architect. Business development, with P&L. Closed over $1.4M and helped win $9M of projects, while leading six engagements. Digital media technologist (DAM/MAM, DRM, VOD, MPEG/AVC, HD) and M&E and CE ecosystem expert.
  
  SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS
  
  • The Walt Disney Company: Engagement lead and technical architect on $10M VOD system for >100K subscribers over multiple broadband CDNs. Deliverables: system design, business plan, vendor analysis, and rollout plan.
  
  • Technicolor: Architect and international standards SME on program to develop technical architecture and business case for their enterprise DAM and services offerings.
  
  • Translucis/United Distillers & Vintners (UDV): Led program to create multicast CDN and data warehouse to deliver advertising content and measure effectiveness of campaigns. System deployed at >1000 venues.

• Director - Strategic Alliances

  Sony Electronics

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SNE; Consumer Electronics industry)

  February 1998 — April 2000 (2 years 3 months)

  Executive internal consultant, brought in to drive Sony’s MPEG strategy, in order to overcome an 18-month deficit vs Panasonic’s DVCPRO. Created and managed alliances with market leaders representing over 95% of the MPEG broadcast equipment market to deploy Sony technology and products.
  
  Developed and ran two key initiatives:
  
  • Sony’s “MPEG World”: Built alliances with 14 key OEMs, helping Sony Professional MPEG grow from zero to $300M (1998-2000). Established major contracts with CBS, Fox, ABC and other station groups.
  
  • Pro-MPEG Forum: As a co-founder, established and managed the consortium, from eight members (7/98) to over 90 members (2/00). As Director and Treasurer, set the direction and managed the consortium finances ($500K budget from participants). http://www.pro-mpeg.org

• Director - Encoder Products

  C-Cube Microsystems

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; CUBE; Semiconductors industry)

  1995 — 1998 (3 years)

Robert R Yamashita’s Education

• California Institute of Technology

  BS with Honors , Electrical Eng; Computer Sci; Business , September 1975 — June 1980

Additional Information

Robert R Yamashita’s Groups:

Standards Organizations and Professional Societies
• SMPTE
Engineering Member 1996 to Present
• Pro-MPEG Forum
Director and Treasurer 1998 to 2000
• DVD CCA; DVD CPTWG
Company Representative 2001 to 2002

•    Caltech Alumni Association
•    Executive Suite
•    The Convergence Technology Council
•    Digital Asset Management
•    Sony Alumni
•    Media & Entertainment Professionals
•    Balanced Scorecard and Dashboard
•    C-Cube Microsystems Alumni
•    Masters of Digital Assets
•    The Venture Phenome Project
•    Media & Entertainment Services Alliance
•    Masters of Customer Engagement
•    Corporate Planning & Global Industry Segmentation
•    Semantic Seed
•    IPhone and Android Developers Fund

Robert R Yamashita’s Honors:

Samples of Published Work (Representative Topics)
• Business MAM and DAM ROI Analysis, Content Monetization, Media Infrastructure Economic Modeling
• Technical MAM Architectures and Enterprise Integration, DRM, MPEG-2, DSP Architectures for CE