Jonathan Sirota is a New York attorney with over 17 years of combined legal, government and business experience. He has worked closely with famous brands, government officials and corporations on projects of all sizes. His work has reached across the globe and cultures throughout the world.
Jonathan's experience includes being a senior executive of the Hearst Corporation for over 10 years where he provided counsel to several multimillion dollar revenue generating business divisions. Prior to Hearst, Jonathan worked for the Japanese government for three years.
At the Hearst Corporation's Office of General Counsel, Jonathan responsibilities included advising Hearst Entertainment's King Features Syndicate. He also served as the Director of Legal Affairs and Secretary of the Board at SmartMoney, a Hearst and Dow Jones & Co., Inc. joint venture.
Jonathan's leadership and counsel forged the way for the successful completion of thousands of deals from small barter deals to complex multimillion-dollar ventures. Jonathan possesses an intuitive understanding of a wide variety of business concerns, including technology projects; transactional matters; copyright, trademark and entertainment issues; manufacturing/distribution vendor relationships; logistical support/ supplier agreements; and domestic/cross-border transactions and negotiations.
Through his years of representing the business and legal interests of the famous POPEYE and BETTY BOOP character franchises worldwide, Jonathan has learned how to successfully navigate global manufacturing/distribution business issues. He also advised on the launch of the Russian edition of "SmartMoney" magazine and website. Adding to his diverse experience, Jonathan was on the lead team to establish a Silicon Valley technology R&D-manufacturing company that brought together key technology players in the United States, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Jonathan is trusted to manage and advise business executives, government officials, and Board members concerning a broad range of business, technology, cross-cultural, and legal matters.
CEO/Co-Founder of GEN Manga Entertainment, Inc.:
GEN Manga Entertainment is America's #1 source of "Indie Manga from the Tokyo Underground."?GEN's manga stories are published nowhere else in the world. They come straight from the anime creators & comic book artists in Japan directly to fans around the world.
Executive Producer of the feature film "Amateurs" (scheduled release - 2013):
Staring Christian Coulson (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) & Neal Bledsoe (SMASH & Ulgy Betty): On the day he was set to propose to his girlfriend, 32-year-old Evan has a bombshell dropped on him--his girlfriend doesn't love him and is seeing someone else. Luckily, his quixotic friends are around to help and together they navigate Evan through his post-breakup spiral by entering into a series of ill-advised relationships with him and each other. Darkly funny and moving, Amateurs is a journey across the vague line between bold adventurousness and depressed inertia that mark an early onset mid-life crisis.
Education, Professional and Academic Activities:
Jonathan completed his undergraduate studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles. During which time Jonathan also completed a year-long program of international studies at Waseda University in Tokyo. He received his law degree from New York Law School. Following his studies, Jonathan returned to Japan to work as an international advisor for the Government of Japan for three years.