OUR TEAM

Our practice is collective. We are human-focused.

SOZO was founded and is led by women with sheer determination to amplify the cultural benefits generated by artists. We are shaping a future—and building a community of culture makers, business leaders, and philanthropists—where the success and well-being of our creative ecosystems are inevitable.

LEADERSHIP

RIKA IINO

FOUNDER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Rika Iino (she/her) embodies two decades of purpose-driven work at the intersection of social impact, innovation, and culture. As an entrepreneur and creative producer, her dedication to artists as change agents has shaped global projects. Deeply engaged in independent artist advocacy and leadership development, Rika serves as a coach, mentor, and speaker at institutions like Stanford, Yale, and UC Berkeley. Co-chair of Building Ethical and Equitable Partnership, a national initiative on equitable contracting, Rika made history in 2021 as the first woman of color to receive the Patrick Hayes Award for transformative leadership from the International Society for the Performing Arts. In 2023, she earned the Mentoring Award from Western Arts Alliance and the CALI Catalyst Award from the Center for Cultural Innovation, acknowledging her extraordinary efforts in realizing greater inclusion and equity in the cultural sector. In 2024 she earned a certification in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently the lead designer for SOZO Fellowship, a groundbreaking artist entrepreneurship and sustainability program.
ICHUN YEH

CHIEF OF REVENUE & CREATIVE VENTURES

Ichun’s work as a creative producer & manager spans more than a decade, leading and overseeing numerous live and digital projects with artists and organizations in various sectors globally. A producer with the business acumen for creative environments, Ichun secures resources and talent to take ambitious projects from conception to fruition. She specializes in discovering and cultivating innovative contemporary works that fuse art, social impact, and technology, often as a translator between artistic expression and business execution. Skilled in relationship building between humans, art, technology, and experiences, Ichun’s understanding of cultural nuance makes her effective in producing performances, exhibitions, and installations globally. Recent work includes facilitating large-scale international collaborations between artistic entities across several countries, and serving as the executive producer for The Dream Machine Experience, the first-ever mixed reality experience at Lincoln Center. She is highly regarded in the industry for her exceptional leadership, as well as her uncanny prowess in finding delicious cocktails wherever in the world work takes her.
MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH

CHIEF OF IMPACT
Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a TED Global Fellow, an Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is also the winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, and an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In the Spring of 2022, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An internationally renowned cultural strategist, Bamuthi is the co-creator of the paradigm-shifting allyship training HEALING FORWARD™. He has lectured in 25 different countries and his TED talk “You Have The Rite” has been viewed more than five million times. An emergent on screen talent, he is among the featured performers in HBO’s screen adaptation of “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehesi Coates. A proud alumnus of Morehouse College, Bamuthi received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts in the Spring of 2022 and was the recipient of a second Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College in the Spring of 2023.