The molecular biology student who grew up to be the general counsel of a major video game company continues to be at the forefront of the gaming and movie industries.
Jeffrey Shieh, recognized last year at the Business Journal’s 14th annual General Counsel Awards at the Irvine Marriott for his work as executive vice president, general counsel and head of business affairs of Sega of America, spent the past 10 months working on new properties.
One of those properties was the launch of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” movie in December, with Sega partner Paramount.
“We are already working on the fourth movie,” Shieh told the Business Journal in an email.
Shieh was also part of the team that worked on the recent launch of “Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds,” Sega’s latest multi-platform kart racing video game.
He also worked on the launch of “Shinobi: Art of Vengeance” video game, marking the return of Sega’s iconic Shinobi character.
“I’m staying busy juggling a variety of matters, never a dull day here. Sega is still doing very well as our video game and transmedia businesses continue their strong growth,” Shieh said.
Shieh’s path to Sega of America was anything but a straight line. He was a molecular biology student at the University of California, Berkeley before moving on to the U.C. College of Law, San Francisco. From there, he joined the law firm Sheppard Mullin, where he worked for six years as an attorney.
“At some point, I decided that I wanted to work not necessarily at a law firm for the rest of my career and become a partner, but instead I wanted to try and go in-house, climb the corporate ladder to become general counsel someday,” Shieh told the Business Journal last year.
He took a job at Edison International, where he served as the company’s corporate governance and finance attorney. Then he transitioned into media in 2007, when Shieh joined Evolve Media LLC.
Shieh would move on to Activision and Oak View Group before landing at Sega of America, where he became the company’s head of legal and business affairs in 2020.
Sega of America offered Shieh an opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream.
“We’re geared toward making video games and entertaining consumers. It’s a great opportunity,” Shieh told the Business Journal after being honored at the 2024 General Counsel Awards.
“You have to remember that, even when you are grinding away on a contract, what we do here is a privilege.”
