Wattpad swaps presidents as Aron Levitz departs to build something new

Toronto-based online storytelling and social media platform Wattpad has undergone a key leadership change: president Aron Levitz has departed and David Lee has taken over.

Lee also currently serves as the CFO of Wattpad parent company and digital comic producer Webtoon Entertainment, which is owned by South Korean internet conglomerate Naver.

“With more than a decade helping build the company, it felt like the right moment, and I am excited to return to my startup roots.”
Aron Levitz,
Wattpad

In a LinkedIn post Wednesday, Levitz said he stepped down from Wattpad “to build a new thing,” which he promised to share more about “in a few weeks.”

Levitz told BetaKit in a LinkedIn message that it was his decision to leave. “After an amazing journey with Wattpad and Webtoon, I made the difficult decision to step away from Wattpad,” he said. “With more than a decade helping build the company, it felt like the right moment, and I am excited to return to my startup roots.”

In a release, Webtoon noted that Lee has previously led transformations at Zynga, Impossible Foods, and Best Buy, and said he steps into the role of president as Wattpad “continues its transformation efforts, with a deepened focus on ad-supported free content and expanded access for its global community of readers and writers.”

Lee’s appointment is part of a series of broader leadership changes at Webtoon aimed at streamlining the firm’s operating structure. Webtoon announced Monday that under new president Yongsoo Kim, the company has made three other promotions, a new hire, and eliminated the CTO role.

“We’re making bold changes to sharpen execution and move faster as an aligned global organization,” Yongsoo Kim said in the release. “We’re not done evolving, and we’re not slowing down.”

Leah Goeun Yeon has been named the firm’s first CBO, while Yuki Chae, Teo Taeyeong Jang, and Sean Shinhyung Kim have been elevated to CPO, head of AI, and head of IP business.

This marks the end of Levitz’s 12-year tenure with the firm. The longtime leader first joined Wattpad in 2013 as head of business development when only a couple million readers and writers were using its platform. Since then, Wattpad has become a hub for young adult and romance stories, as well as fan fiction. Today, Wattpad and Webtoon are home to more than 160 million monthly active users. Wattpad stories have launched several popular film and TV adaptations, including the After series and The Kissing Booth; the adaptation of the former brought in a nearly $70 million USD global box office.

During his time with the company, Levitz launched and led Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Webtoon Studios, spinning up the latter after Wattpad’s 2021 acquisition by Naver for $754 million CAD. Levitz was named co-president of Wattpad in late 2024, and took sole ownership of the role in May 2025 when KB Nam returned to South Korea to lead Webtoon’s IP business.

Levitz sat down with BetaKit in October to unpack Wattpad’s evolving strategy as the company brought on Chelsea Parry as head of product. At the time, Levitz said the company’s vision involved implementing product features to improve story discoverability, offering readers and writers more ways to connect, improving its advertising and subscription services, and adopting AI while ensuring human creation remains at the core of Wattpad.

A Webtoon spokesperson told BetaKit over email that Wattpad’s go-forward strategy remains the same under Lee’s leadership.

Wattpad and Webtoon have already integrated their tech and some services, and shared IP and users while working together to grow both platforms.

Wattpad currently has over 200 Canadian employees based largely in Toronto with a smaller presence in Halifax. Like many other Canadian tech firms, Wattpad has undergone multiple layoffs in recent years amid deteriorating market conditions, including staff reductions in early 2023 and early 2024. A Wattpad spokesperson told BetaKit over email that Wattpad does not have any other leadership or staffing changes planned at the moment.

Feature image courtesy Wattpad.