After working with the stars of Disney, TikTok, and CoComelon, well-traveled exec Kevin Mayer has his eye on the K-pop industry. The Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Candle Media, who also had a brief stint as the CEO of TikTok, has joined the Board of Directors for the South Korean entertainment company HYBE.
HYBE, which adopted its current name in 2021, was originally known as Big Hit Entertainment. Under that name, it operated as one of South Korea’s most prominent labels. HYBE is best known for creating BTS, the Seoul-based septet that has become the most successful K-pop act of all time.
BTS recently returned from a four-year hiatus with a comeback album called ARIRANG, and the record’s initial numbers on YouTube show that the boy band hasn’t lost a step since its 2010s heyday. In only two weeks, the music video for the track “Swim” has tallied more than 86 million YouTube hits.
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There’s no question that BTS is still huge, but the K-pop landscape looks a lot different now than it did when the Bangtan Boys began their hiatus. The U.S.-based group KATSEYE — which was also created by HYBE — has shown that K-pop is no longer just a Korean phenomenon. The American animated film KPop Demon Hunters reinforced that idea. In addition to winning awards and smashing viewership records, the Netflix original brought its characters to the forefront of mainstream culture. Across the most popular channels on YouTube Shorts, Rumi and her bandmates are ubiquitous.
Enter Mayer. The longtime Disney exec only had a brief stint as TikTok’s CEO, but his next move connected him to the world of short-form family content. As the Co-CEO of Blackstone-backed Candle Media, Mayer has led acquisitions of several notable properties, including CoComelon producer Moonbug.
As a member of the HYBE board, Mayer will help guide the company’s strategy as it prepares for a big year. BTS is heading out on tour, and one of the legs will be a spring and summer swing through the United States. That will be a great opportunity to reach the K-pop fans who have supported U.S.-based projects like KATSEYE and Kpop Demon Hunters.
“The joining of key experts from the global platform and media industries to the board is expected to elevate HYBE’s decision-making systems,” reads a statement from HYBE. “Kevin Mayer’s macro-level insights for managing strategic risks in global platform businesses will greatly contribute to HYBE achieving sustainable growth in the global market.”
2025 was a banner year for HYBE, with the firm’s annual revenue reaching approximately $1.86 billion. 2026 has the potential to be even bigger, so don’t be surprised if you start to see Jimin and Jungkook standing next to Rumi in all of those YouTube Shorts videos.
