Harold George Meij (born 4 December 1963) is a Dutch businessman. He was the president of

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

(NJPW) from May 2018 until October 2020.

Early life

He came to Japan as a young child due to his father's work not speaking any English or Japanese, but eventually learned both. Born 1963 in the Netherlands, Meij came to Japan in his childhood, and has lived in Japan, Indonesia and the US in his youth. He graduated from

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

and later attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Career

In 1987 he joined Heineken Japan, then moved to Unilever Japan, Sunstar, and in 2006 was Senior Vice President of Coca-Cola Japan until joining

Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

in 2014, where he became the Chief Operating Officer, and in 2015 he became the President and CEO, thereby becoming one of the first foreign nationals to lead
first-section listed
Japanese company. Meij successfully turned the loss making company around, and its latest financial results is showing greatly improved profitability (year ending March 2017), and their stock has more than quadrupled. He introduced innovative new ideas such as placing “ Gacha” toy capsule machines at airports, initiated numerous collaboration and licensing projects with other companies, introduced numerous toy lines based on original animation, comic and film content, and worked on improving brand strength. Known for his marketing and promotional savviness, Meij has used his marketing and management base built over time working at multinational companies such as

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

with success to a Japanese company. Known to be fluent in Japanese, the Nikkei even went so far as to say he had the “Steve Jobs Effect” implementing over "100 innovations", and is known to be very approachable even dressing up at Halloween events. He is a Japanese history buff and loves

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

. In 2014 he was a key speaker at the Yomiuri International Forum to discuss "the world economy and Japan's ability to earn"　 In May 2018 it was announced that

(NJPW) appointed Meij as their new President of the company, becoming the first non-Japanese president of NJPW. Meij is fluent in English, Dutch, and Japanese, among others, and in December 2019 published hi
first book in Japanese
In 2020 he was featured in NHK's "The Human" and NHK's Japanology Plus. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government also used him is their "Tokyo, My City" campaign. In December 2019 he was awarded the "45th Global Award" by the Japanese Economic Foru

, and in September 2020 won the Forbes Japan 2020 Sports Awar

On September 29, 2020, New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that Meij was stepping down from his role as CEO/President on October 23 after having attained its highest sales and profit level in the company's history. Meij currently serves as a director for Earth Pharmaceuticals, Kewpie, and Panasonic. He is also an advisor at

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and manufactures products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and Fashion accessory, a ...

, and is a regular news commentator on the nationally televised "N Suta" news program, broadcast daily on TBS.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meij, Harold 1963 births Living people Dutch chief executives Dutch emigrants to Japan Chief operating officers Bucknell University alumni New York University alumni Bushiroad Coca-Cola people Unilever people Heineken people New Japan Pro-Wrestling Professional wrestling executives