Former TikTok chief and ex-Disney veteran Kevin Mayer has joined the Board of Directors at South Korea-born entertainment giant HYBE.
Los Angeles-based Mayer was installed as a non-executive director of HYBE at a shareholders’ meeting on March 31, according to Korean news outlet, Money Today Broadcasting (MTN).
He is currently Co-CEO/Founder of Blackstone-backed American “next generation” media company Candle Media, and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of VC firm Smash Capital.
In 2022, Candle Media acquired Spanish-language content firm Exile Content Studio, co-founded by current HYBE America Chairman/CEO, Isaac Lee. MTN reports that the acquisition “established a connection” between HYBE and Mayer.
Mayer’s appointment comes amid a period of significant change at HYBE America, which recently rebranded its Nashville division as Blue Highway Records following the departure of Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta.
It also arrives at a pivotal moment for HYBE’s parent company, which posted record annual revenues of $1.86 billion for 2025 and is gearing up for the BTS World Tour ARIRANG — an 82-show stadium tour across 23 countries. BTS’s comeback album, also titled Arirang, broke K-Pop streaming records on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music upon its release on March 20.
Mayer, who was also the COO of parent company ByteDance, joined TikTok in May 2020, becoming the platform’s first-ever US-based CEO. But he resigned less than four months into the role amid turmoil caused by the Donald Trump administration’s demands that TikTok sell off a chunk of its US business.
Access Industries, the majority owner of Warner Music Group, subsequently announced in November 2020 that Mayer had joined its ranks as a “senior media adviser”, a role in which he served until 2023. He also had a two-year fixed term as Chairman of the board at sports platform DAZN from 2021 to 2023.
Prior to TikTok, Mayer was Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer & International at Disney – a position in which he led the rollout of video streaming service Disney+, which surpassed 50m paying subscribers in April, five months after launch.
Additionally, he led Disney’s other direct-to-consumer businesses, including Hulu, ESPN+, and Hotstar, and oversaw Disney’s international operations, global ad sales, and global content sales.
Previously, as Disney’s Chief Strategy Officer, Mayer helped orchestrate the company’s acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and most of 21st Century Fox.
Mayer spent 22 years working at Disney in total, across two stints (1993-2000, and then 2005-2020).
In the interim, he served in roles including the CEO of Playboy.com, and Chairman/CEO of Clear Channel Interactive.
He currently serves on the board of Harvard Business School, as well as on the boards of Tinuiti and The Forest Road Company. He is also an advisory board member at Salesforce and a member of the board of trustees at The Paley Center for Media.Music Business Worldwide
