John Ledford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006)

John R. Ledford II (born August 19, 1968 in Houston, Texas) is an American entrepreneur, co-founder and president of ADV Films.

Originally an avid fan of video games, college dropout Ledford founded a company, Gametronix, in 1990 as an importer of video game systems and cartridges. By 1992, he and Matt Greenfield had switched their focus to anime, and founded A.D. Vision (now doing business as ADV Films).^[1]. Within a year, he was making enough profit off anime licensing and distribution that he dissolved Gametronix and focused his attention on ADV. Within a decade, the company had cemented its status as a major distributor of anime in North America, and had diversified into releasing live-action films on DVD, promoting original film releases, a venture into extreme wrestling with Combat Zone Wrestling, and even inaugurating a cable network (The Anime Network).