Sony Pictures Entertainment communications chief Robert Lawson has been promoted to head of all corporate communications for its Tokyo-based parent Sony.
The choice to move Lawson, who joined Sony amid the infamous cyber attack and email leaks at the entertainment group in 2014, into the top corp comms role is indicative of Sony’s significant focus on its entertainment divisions within the company’s larger portfolio; movies, music and gaming accounts for more than half of Sony’s revenue and profit. Tapping Lawson also gives Sony’s corporate team in Japan stronger ties to the US-based divisions.
He will begin his new role April 1, reporting directly to Sony Group chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida, but remain LA-based and part-time as head of SPE comms for the next few months as the company transitions and names a successor.
Lawson was named chief communications officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment in summer 2015. He soon restructured PR efforts across entertainment so that motion pictures and television worked in the same division and collaborated closely.
Over the years that he’s been leading the team, Lawson’s managed the company through multiple comms situations, including the exits of top executives, major re-orgs, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 writers and actors strikes.
“Bob has always maintained a strong, collaborate working relationship with SGC leadership and across our Sony sister companies, so this promotion is hardly surprising,” Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra said. “And his appointment to the SGC leadership team reflects the growing importance of the US-based entertainment companies to SGC’s overall business.”
Read Vinciquerra’s memo to staff about Lawson’s promotion below.
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, collaborate 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!
