EA does the executive shuffle
EA promotes Soderlund to EA Sports head, hands Gibeau the mobile division [UPDATED]
Just one week after promoting EA Sports boss Andrew Wilson to chief executive officer, Electronic Arts is making changes to fill the the space left by Wilson. According to a report by Polygon, EA Games label vice president Patrick Soderlund will be taking over as the head of EA Sports. Soderlund has been with the company for thirteen years, first as the CEO of EA DICE and then the senior vice president of EA Games Europe.
Wilson was also the head of EA's Origin service, a position that will be filled by EA Labels president Frank Gibeau. Gibeau will also take control of EA's mobile division. It remains unclear if Gibeau will remain in his role as EA Labels president or if there will be another installment in that position.
The news was reportedly revealed during a company-wide town hall meeting today. GamesIndustry International has reached out to EA for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
Wilson became CEO of the company last week, a move that surprised some who expected Gibeau or chief operating officer Peter Moore to step into the role. Despite that, analysts called the move a "safe choice" for EA.
Update: GamesBeat via an anonymous source managed to get a hold of the internal memo that new EA CEO Andrew Wilson distributed to employees earlier today. The executive changes mentioned above have been confirmed in the memo, although it's still not clear if Gibeau has shifted to overseeing just mobile or if he's retaining his Labels president role as well. Peter Moore is also still at the publisher, but the memo does not state if he's keeping the COO title.
Here's the complete memo:
Thanks to everyone that logged in from across the world to join today's Global Town Hall. As I reiterated earlier, I could not be more honored to be in this role and I am incredibly optimistic about the great work we will be able to do together in the future.
Our priorities right now are simple - we must deliver on our FY14 plan, continue the transformation of our organization for our digital future, create amazing games and services, have a ruthless focus and execute.
I will work closely with my senior management team to help drive these priorities through the organization. Each of these leaders will report directly to me in their roles:
· Patrick Söderlund will continue to lead the EA Games development studios, and will now also take on the leadership of EA SPORTS. Patrick's passion for games and commitment to quality is unfaltering. This is a very important role for EA and represents a significant portion of our investment in creating amazing games and services.
· Frank Gibeau will lead the business in our biggest growth area and the fastest growing segment in games - Mobile. Mobile is a major priority for EA, and we need focus to achieve continued success. Having a leader with Frank's passion and expertise in this position is a huge win for us.
· Peter Moore continues to lead our Global Publishing and Marketing organizations, as well as EA's Worldwide Customer Experience and Global Media Solutions teams. Peter's unparalleled ability to rally a team around a constantly evolving future is what enables us to consistently deliver amazing games to players worldwide.
· Our gamer base is evolving and diversifying, and how we evolve our games to match will be a major factor in our future success. Having spent much of her career building games and services for a broader player base, Lucy Bradshaw joins my management team as the head of Maxis studios while leading the charge to expand the reach of our games with new experiences.
· Rajat Taneja has proven himself to be a powerful change agent in his two years at EA, and his focus will continue to be developing our platform to efficiently support our game experiences, aggregate and manage our customer data, and learn from the interactions to build even better content and services.
· Blake Jorgensen continues to lead the Finance organization at EA. Blake has quickly forged a vital partnership between our finance team and the rest of the organization. He and his team will ensure we are taking the right steps to deliver profitable growth to our shareholders.
· As our head of Legal and Business Affairs and a long-time leader inside this organization, Joel Linzner continues to play a critical role for EA in all aspects of our business and key partnerships.
· Gabrielle Toledano continues to lead us in identifying, engaging and developing world-class talent as the head of Human Resources and Facilities at EA. I'll look to Gaby to play a big role in the ongoing transformation of our organization to truly operate as one EA team.
These are exciting times for all of us here at EA. Games like FIFA 14, launching this week around the world, are at the very pinnacle of quality for the current-gen consoles and an example of what great can look like across platforms, business models and geographies. We have more amazing games launching over the coming months, including our robust slate of titles for the next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Meanwhile, Mobile continues its amazing trajectory, and we're exploring new opportunities in digital gaming every day.
I'm incredibly motivated to lead all of you into this new era of gaming joined by a management team of unmatched experience and passion. I look forward to sharing more soon.