Roger Bennett to retire from ELSPA next July

Long-serving ELSPA director general Roger Bennett has announced his intention to step down from the role next July, ending a sixteen year run at the head of the UK's videogames publishing trade body.

No replacement has been mooted as yet for Bennett, who has been responsible for day to day running of ELSPA since 1989 and is a familiar figure to most of the UK industry, having taken an increasingly active role in arguing the industry's case in the media in recent years.

Among the achievements of ELSPA during his term as director-general are the establishment of the voluntary age rating systems used for videogames, the creation of the UK's leisure software charts, the commissioning of annual industry reports and a significant role in the creation of the industry's European representative body, ISFE.

ELSPA board chairman Andy Payne marked Bennett's decision to retire as "the end of an era," commenting that "Roger has been an exceptionally loyal servant to the industry and he will be missed."

"I think all who have worked with Roger will wish him the very best and I am sure he will be ready to take up a new challenge within the industry as his skills, contacts and vast experience are second to none."

As for Bennett, the outgoing director-general described his stint at ELSPA as "a helter-skelter ride of continuous challenges and shared hopes and aspirations for the industry."

"No doubt the challenges to be faced by ELSPA will intensify as the industry becomes recognised as being at the cutting edge of screen entertainment. It's been a wonderful experience and I feel extremely lucky to have worked in such a vibrant industry for so long."

"Still, there is much to be done even over the next seven months," he concluded, "in which I'll continue to work hard on behalf of the friends and colleagues I have come to know so well in my time in the games industry."