Turbine appoints new VP of operations

Turbine, the Lord of the Rings Online developer, has announced the appointment of Ken Surdan as its new vice president of operations.

In his new role, Surdan will oversee network operations, project management and customer service and support for Turbine's franchises.

"Ken brings an extensive ecommerce and consumer facing operations background that will be vital as Turbine scales its global operations," said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine.

"We're really excited to bring Ken's strong record of accomplishment and his passion for the customer to bear on our rapidly growing business. This powers up the senior management unit at Turbine significantly."

Surdan joins the company after having worked at TripAdvisor Media Network, SmartBargains.com, and National Leisure Group.

"I've had the good fortune to work with some of the best online organisations in the business," said Surdan.

"Yet Turbine really brings something unique to the table in terms of its proven ability to operate massive online games, as well as manage the complex online customer ecosystems which surround each of their multiple titles."

He added: "I'm thrilled to join the team which will now build the technology and operations platform that will define the next generation of online entertainment."

"Our plans are to literally play a category leading role in how tomorrow's systems are built and monitored to support these massive, interactive, transaction-based environments."