Carson Murray, Keren Cheung and Mariano Hernandez have all joined the YuMe Toys team as the company continues to expand across numerous global territories.

Carson Murray

YuMe Toys’ growth and success continues into 2023 with the appointment of Carson Murray as VP for North America. Carson will be based out of the YuMe office in Toronto covering the entire region.

Carson joins YuMe Toys from Funko, where he has spent the last five years, most recently as Country head for Canada. Amongst his many successes at Funko, Carson secured nationwide placement in almost every single retailer and retail channel in the Canadian market. Prior to his time at Funko, he held various senior sales roles at Kroeger Inc., The Wilko Group and Dynatech Action Inc., and brings to YuMe almost 20 years of toy and consumer products experience.

Michael Kwan, YuMe Toys CEO, said: “Everybody knows the importance of the North American market to our industry, both in terms of strategic development and sales. 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 centre of industry progression.’’

Keren Cheung

Keren Cheung, meanwhile, joins as business advisor, covering the APAC region across YuMe Toys, Licensing Matters Global and Maxx Marketing. Keren brings with her years of experience within the toy industry, having worked extensively for both Hasbro and Disney.

A native of Hong Kong, Keren moved to Shanghai in 2007 where she initially joined Disney, rising to executive director, TV & Media for Marketing. She then joined Hasbro as senior director of Licensing for Greater China, before becoming country manager of Hasbro China.

Keren is passionate at bringing together teams and excels at optimising the output of individuals within the group. In her role as business advisor, she 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.

Mariano Hernandez

Keren stated: “I’m excited to be part of YuMe Toys because of the innovation and creativity of its products. 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.’’

YuMe Toys is has also announced the appointment of Mariano Hernandez as VP, Central and South American markets. In his new role, Mariano will oversee sales across the LATAM region.

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

“We are delighted to welcome Mariano to the ever growing YuMe team,” commented Michael 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”.