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Anime Expo's Parent Organization Adds 5 Board Members
posted on by Egan Loo
The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), the overseeing body of the Anime Expo (AX) convention, has announced five new members to its Board of Directors. Lionel Lum has worked within SPJA since AX began in 1992 and is also known for his Usagichan site of convention reports. Craige Howlett is the chief financial officer for Anime Resource Group, the governing body of FanimeCon in northern California. H. Roderic Onodera has volunteered for AX for 15 years, particularly in its Guest Relations Department. Marc Perez has been an AX volunteer since 2004. Paul Wilson has volunteered in AX since it began in 1992 and served as its co-chairperson for two years.
Effective immediately, the five new members join Josh Ritter and Ross Johnson, the only remaining board members from last year. SPJA announced its first permanent chief executive officer in two years, former SPJA chief financial officer and longtime AX staffer Trulee Karahashi, in August. The changes come in a year of transition for America's largest anime and manga convention, which will move for the first time to the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2008, its seventeenth year.
