Manga veteran Dallas Middaugh has taken a new position at Crunchyroll in San Francisco as Head of Brand and Community, reporting to CEO Kun Gao.  Gao said of the hire, "With his experience and understanding of our audience and the manga category, Dallas will be able to contribute invaluably to expanding the Crunchyroll brand and further deepening the relationship to our audience."

Crunchyroll is primarily known as a streaming anime service, but added manga in 2013 (see "Crunchyroll Sold").

Middaugh is moving to Crunchyroll from his position as Senior Director at Penguin Random House Publisher Services, the distribution arm of Penguin Random House.  In that role and in his previous one as Director, he managed branding, publishing, manufacturing and marketing for the Kodansha Comics line of manga.

Prior to his role in distribution, Middaugh served as Associate Publisher for Random House’s Del Rey Manga imprint, as CEO and co-founder of Seven Seas, and as Director of Sales and Marketing at VIZ Media.

Middaugh’s new role will send him back to San Francisco after over a decade in New York.