Universal Entertainment has announced that a total of seven new Directors will be joining its executive leadership team as oversight reforms proceed.
Of these seven new senior members of Universal board staff, three of these appointments were made as external hires while four came from within the organization. Indeed, the company’s newly elected Substitute Director – Takayuki Kumagai – came as part of an external hiring process and will now sit on Universal’s Audit and Supervisory Committee alongside his duties as Substitute Director.
Kumagai is s seasoned business executive who operates as the CEO and Founding Partner of multiple technology companies in his home nation of Japan. Elsewhere, the six additional new hires are composed of Tomohiro Okada, Yoshiyuki Shouji, Kazuyuki Yanagi, Nobuki Sato, Koichiro Sakai and Takayuki Kumagai.
This latest development falls in the wake of Universal Entertainment’s Q4 and full year financial results – which were released in early Q1. These troubling financials saw Q4 and full year EBITDA drop by 88.5% and 44.1% year-over-year, respectively, with full year 2025 revenue also declining by 30.6% to PHP 7.07bn ($120m) in comparison to results from 2024.
Now, it would appear that this latest governance overhaul and introduction of seven new board members seeks to shift the tide at the Philippine operator.
More recent updates from the operator saw Universal partner with PhilWeb earlier this month for the launch of the Oakada Play platform – based around Oakada Manila, which is owned and operated by Universal. Also in March the Okada Foundation announced a PHP 3m grant for Filipino artists in partnership with the Cultural Council Philippines Foundation.
Last summer, Okada Manila also unveiled the appointment of Nobuki Sato as President and COO – as he now steps in as one of Universal’s newest Directors
