Kun Gao

Mr. Kun Gao is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Forge since January 2023, where he leads the development of a next-generation platform empowering gamers to celebrate their achievements and earn rewards for their dedication to gaming. He is a Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of GGWP since March 2020, a Co-Founder of Crunchyroll, Inc. since June 2006, and Co-Founder and CTO of Frappr.com, since December 2004.

At GGWP, Mr. Gao drives business strategy and partnerships to scale comprehensive solutions that help game developers harness data to identify toxic behavior and create safer, more positive gaming communities. As Co-Founder and founding CEO of Crunchyroll, he played a key role in building the company into a global leader in anime streaming, connecting fans all over the world with premium content, events, games, and consumer products. As Co-founder and CTO of Frappr.com, he helped launch one of the most successful geolocation social networks.

Prior to founding his own ventures, Mr. Gao worked as a Product Engineer at HOTorNOT and Slide, where he contributed to product development and early social platform innovation.

Mr. Gao was a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (2004–2006), focusing on multi-core database systems optimization and pipeline database systems. He earned his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley (2000–2004).