Robert Sharp

President & CEO @ HENNGE (North America)

About

I grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and have built my career in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. My focus has been on serving enterprise and SMB customers, primarily by delivering software solutions to technical and creative professionals. I pride myself on being organized, focused, and a strong communicator. My greatest passions and strengths lie in recruiting, team building and fostering a positive company culture. I'm obsessed with customer service (おもてなし) and a curious student of modern GTM best practices. I don't take myself too seriously. Career highlights include: • Co-founded and was Chairman of Toolfarm, a global online reseller of motion graphics and animation software. In July 2023, Toolfarm was acquired by Midwich Group (LON: MIDW), a publicly traded UK IT distribution company with approximately $1.65 billion in annual revenue and nearly 1,900 employees. • Head of Global Sales at Red Giant from 2014 to 2021. Our team was tasked with transitioning the company’s business to a B2B SaaS model. This shift significantly boosted Red Giant’s revenue and enterprise value, culminating in a successful nine figure exit in 2020 to Maxon, a subsidiary of Nemetschek Group (FWB: NEM), a publicly traded German software company with a market capitalization of approximately $12 billion.

Country

United States

City

San Francisco

Industry

Computer Software

Skill

Startups, Go-to-market Strategy, Customer Success, Software as a Service (SaaS), Board level experience, Business-to-Business (B2B), Strategic Partnerships, Board Governance, Board Level, Start-ups, Motion Graphics, Digital Media, Video, Video Editing, Film, Non-profits, Broadcast, Video Production, Digital Video, Final Cut Pro

Experience

President & CEO

HENNGE (North America)

2025-4 - Present · 1 yr 6 mos

San Francisco, California, United States

HENNGE Inc. is a joint venture between HENNGE K.K. (TSE: 4475) and SunBridge Corporation, an international venture capital firm headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. HENNGE K.K. is a Tokyo-based company specializing in cloud security SaaS. The flagship product, HENNGE One, offers functions such as single sign-on (SSO), access control, email security and secure file sharing to help businesses mitigate security risks while using cloud services.

Advisor

HENNGE

2024-6 - Present · 2 yrs 4 mos

Tokyo, Japan

HENNGE is a leading cloud security provider based in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1996, HENNGE is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE: 4475).

Board Member

Mangamo 株式会社

2024-9 - Present · 2 yrs 1 mo

Tokyo, Japan

Mangamo is a digital manga app launched in 2020. It has one of the largest English language mobile manga libraries in the world with officially licensed series and exclusive manga content from several Japanese publishers.

Board Member

Shosha Group

2023-12 - Present · 2 yrs 10 mos

Tokyo, Japan & San Francisco, California

Advising startups and mid-sized technology companies on GTM strategy and execution.

Chief Revenue Officer

ProtoPie

2022-11 - 2023-11 · 1 yr 1 mo

Seoul, South Korea

ProtoPie is a South Korean startup with a no-code solution for prototyping advanced digital interactions. Customers include some of the biggest brands in the world including Mercedes, Google, Bosch, Nintendo, Disney and PayPal. Ranked #1 advanced UI prototyping tool in the 2022 Design Tool Survey.

Co-Founder & Chairman

Toolfarm

1999 - 2023 · 24 yrs

San Francisco, California

Toolfarm is the world's leading online reseller of motion graphics, VFX, 3D and animation software. Acquired by Midwich Group (LON: MIDW), a publicly traded UK IT distribution company with approximately $1.6 billion in annual revenue and nearly 1,900 employees.

President

NewBlue, Inc.

2021-3 - 2022-9 · 1 yr 7 mos

San Francisco, California

NewBlue develops software solutions for video editing, production, and live streaming. Their tools are designed to enhance workflows for video creators, broadcasters, and post-production professionals.

Head Of Global Sales - Maxon

Maxon

2020 - 2021 · 1 yr

San Francisco, California

Responsible for the global sales and training organization of the merged Red Giant and Maxon entities. Maxon is a subsidiary of Nemetschek Group (FWB: NEM) a German leader of software solutions for the architecture, engineering, construction and media & entertainment markets worldwide.

Head of Global Sales - Red Giant

Maxon

2014 - 2020 · 6 yrs

San Francisco, California

Recruited and managed the inside sales, field sales and customer success teams that consistently exceeded expectations. Our team was responsible for the company's first SaaS revenue from enterprise and SMB customers.

Owner

Digieffects

2007 - 2014 · 7 yrs

San Francisco, California

A developer of motion graphics software used by top brands and licensed to Adobe, Corel and MAGIX. Ultimately the business could not scale and the IP was sold to Corel.