Telltale Games appoints Pete Hawley new CEO
Former Zynga exec and Red Robot Labs co-founder taking over as Dan Connors steps down from chief exec role for second time
Telltale Games will have a new CEO as of this coming Monday. As reported by VentureBeat, the developer behind The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones adventure games will welcome Pete Hawley as its new chief executive.
Hawley comes to Telltale from Zynga, where he served as a VP and general manager for the past three years. Prior to that, he was a co-founder and CEO at location-based game developer Red Robot Labs, and had stints at Electronic Arts, Sony, Lionhead, and GT Interactive.
The appointment of Hawley means Telltale co-founder Dan Connors will be ending his second stint atop the studio. Connors was Telltale's original CEO, but stepped down in 2015, yielding the position to fellow co-founder Kevin Bruner. After Bruner resigned earlier this year, Connors took the reins again while the company's board of directors searched for a permanent replacement. He will remain on the board of directors and assist Hawley with the transition to his new position.
As might be expected, Hawley received a vote of confidence from Telltale chairman of the board John Riccitiello.
"When I sat down with Pete, I said, 'Shit. This is the guy,'" Riccitiello told VentureBeat. "He blew me away. Telltale is one of those places where you would like to have a content creator as CEO, and Pete has that experience. Kevin and Dan invented a new medium with episodic narrative gaming. Pete has a strong vision for where the industry is going. He is a hands-on, driven guy who will execute and get us to where we want to be."