Scooter Braun is officially stepping down as CEO of HYBE America and transitioning into a strategic advisory role, HYBE announced on July 1. While stepping away from day-to-day leadership, Braun will remain closely involved with the company as a board director and senior advisor to Chairman Bang Si-hyuk and CEO Jason Jaesang Lee. Isaac Lee, currently heading HYBE Latin America, will take over as CEO of HYBE America.
According to Variety, Braun’s decision comes as he prepares to pursue a new venture, though details remain under wraps. Reflecting on his time at HYBE, Braun called it “one of the most inspiring chapters” of his career and praised Chairman Bang as “a true visionary and musical genius.”
Though stepping back from his CEO role, Braun emphasized that he’s “not going anywhere.” He will stay involved in projects like HYBE’s new girl group KATSEYE and continue mentoring artists.
Previously, on June 2024, Scooter Braun announced that he will retire from managing via a letter published on Instagram. In the letter, he also mentioned that he will focus on his family and the development of HYBE America.
The letter itself has infuriated fans of HYBE artists, who have been protesting against Scooter Braun due to his support for Israel for a long time. However, 2 fandoms reacted the strongest due to one particular detail.
In particular, Scooter Braun mentioned K-pop artists NewJeans, TXT, LE SSERAFIM, SEVENTEEN, and ILLIT as “new acts” under HYBE – a description that simply doesn’t apply to SEVENTEEN and TXT, who have been active for a long time.
As both of the groups are experienced artists that greatly contributed to the growth of HYBE, fans felt like Scooter Braun was disrespecting SEVENTEEN and TXT by calling them “new acts”, leading to angry reactions all over SNS.
Below are some posts from fans who called Scooter Braun out for his at best ignorant comments:
- “New acts” and then name drops TXT who have been active since 2019 and SEVENTEEN who have been active from 2015”
- Scooter Braun thinking he has the right to list TXT as a new group as if they weren’t already established and thriving before HYBE was even a thing…
- Scooter calling txt a “new act” like they haven’t been around funding HYBE before it was even a thing
- “New acts like seventeen” oh shut the fuck up.
