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Iddison resigns as Jagex CEO, replaced by Mark Gerhard


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Jagex Appoints Mark Gerhard as Chief Executive Officer

 

 

 

UK, Cambridge, 30th January, 2009 Jagex today announced the appointment of Mark Gerhard as the new Chief Executive Officer following the resignation of Geoff Iddison earlier this month. Mark Gerhard, who currently serves as the Chief Technical Officer at Jagex, has been appointed to lead the company from 1st February.

 

 

 

I have enjoyed working for Jagex immensely, said Geoff Iddison. The business remains at the cutting edge of the video games industry and its continued growth reflects the strong business model and the high calibre of people within the company. It was great to be part of a business which is shaping the industry in such a way.

 

 

 

On behalf of everyone at Jagex, Id like to thank Geoff for everything he has brought to the business over the last 18 months, and wish him all the best with his future endeavours, said Andrew Gower, Jagex Founder. We have an exciting year planned for 2009 and are confident of continued success with Mark as our new CEO. Mark has performed exceptionally well since joining the company last year and I am sure that Jagex will continue to flourish under his leadership.

 

 

 

Mark joined Jagex in February 2008 from GTECH where he served as the Principle Security Architect for the National Lottery. He has held numerous executive positions and has over 14 years experience working in the technology sector. Having the opportunity to build on Jagex's phenomenal success is a great privilege and I'm honored by the boards endorsement, said Mark Gerhard. I fully intend to build value for Jagex, our players and our great staff.

 

 

 

http://jagex.com/corporate/Press/releaseCEO_2.ws

 

 

 

So congratulations Mod MMG, and I wish you well in your role as CEO.

 

 

 

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And here's a quote not in the press release:

 

"Mark was a very detailed manager that provided great insight that often assisted me in my business development decisions. His IT knowledge was complimented by his understanding of marketing which made his recommendations that more meaningful."

 

Brian Nash, VP Business Development, Serious USA, worked indirectly for Mark at Serious (2000-2002)

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Wonder what sparked that, did Geoff get headhunted for somewhere else perhaps?

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Oh wow, why'd he resign? That can't be good...

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Oh wow, why'd he resign? That can't be good...

 

Why not? Some people just want something else after a while, or they get a good offer. Now, I don't know anything about why he resigned, but stating on beforehand that it isn't good isn't right.

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Resignation is a fancy word for, "Get out now before we fire you and you can't get unemployment."

 

 

 

No, but personally I didn't like the direction that Runescape took when under Geoff's "reign" so to speak. Perhaps not all of the "member teaser" ideas came from him when he was a CEO, but I can't imagine he didn't have a hand in it.

 

 

 

Is anything known about this new CEO? He seems pretty fresh into the company without a lot of history in gaming. He must be exceptional at what he does to jump up in ranks so quickly. Is this choice made in hopes of "securing" more advanced ways against credit card fraud, given his extensive history in security?

 

 

 

Hmmm.

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Oh wow, why'd he resign? That can't be good...

 

Why not? Some people just want something else after a while, or they get a good offer. Now, I don't know anything about why he resigned, but stating on beforehand that it isn't good isn't right.

 

 

 

It's a bit all of a sudden, isn't it? Geoff stated in a Q&A that he would be working on Mechscape too in the next years.

 

So something must have happened for him to resign, or else he got sacked.

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Wasn't his role more of a finance role, than a game role anyway, so it shouldn't have much impact except maybe a small price changes, new payment methods, new advertising etc.

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Is anything known about this new CEO? He seems pretty fresh into the company without a lot of history in gaming. He must be exceptional at what he does to jump up in ranks so quickly. Is this choice made in hopes of "securing" more advanced ways against credit card fraud, given his extensive history in security?

 

 

 

I found this of his past things:

 

Security Architect at GTECH

 

Chief Technical Officer at Ministry of Data

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Is anything known about this new CEO? He seems pretty fresh into the company without a lot of history in gaming. He must be exceptional at what he does to jump up in ranks so quickly. Is this choice made in hopes of "securing" more advanced ways against credit card fraud, given his extensive history in security?

 

 

 

Employment history:

 

Chief Executive Officer at Jagex (February 2009 onwards)

 

Chief Technical Officer at Jagex (January 2008 - February 2009)

 

Security Architect at GTECH (October 2007 - January 2008)

 

Chief Technical Officer at Ministry of Data (November 2004 - October 2007)

 

Group Systems Manager at Sterling Relocation (September 2002 - November 2004)

 

Chief Operating Officer at Serious (July 2000 - April 2002)

 

Principal Consultant at Chromasonic Computer Centre Ltd (June 1999 - July 2000)

 

IT Director at Hospital I.T. Solutions (Pty) Ltd (January 1999 - May 1999)

 

Security Consultant at Rand Merchant Bank (October 1998 - December 1998)

 

 

 

Statement from last year regarding the North American servers:

 

 

Jagex has recently made a significant investment in upgrading our server architecture internationally whilst actively working on reducing our carbon footprint.

 

 

 

Part of this process involved moving to new data centres that provide power from renewable sources. Additionally, all game servers designated for Canada/USA were replaced with substantially faster and more resilient hardware.

 

 

 

We managed to achieve this massive upgrade on Friday 25 April 2008 without disruption to players by essentially "cloning" systems from a standard secure build. Unfortunately this resulted in the configuration files that denote the servers' designation also being "cloned" from the standard build.

 

 

 

Our IT Department became aware of the issue around 7pm on Friday and immediately proceeded to update the configuration files. The task was completed around 8pm on Friday.

 

 

 

I would like to personally apologise for any distress this may have caused to our players and would like to assure them that all the improvements we have made so far are designed to improve the security, performance, reliability and overall positive experience of all our games.

 

 

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

Mod MMG

 

Chief Technical Officer

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Oh wow, why'd he resign? That can't be good...

 

Why not? Some people just want something else after a while, or they get a good offer. Now, I don't know anything about why he resigned, but stating on beforehand that it isn't good isn't right.

 

 

 

It's a bit all of a sudden, isn't it? Geoff stated in a Q&A that he would be working on Mechscape too in the next years.

 

So something must have happened for him to resign, or else he got sacked.

 

 

 

My thoughts exactly. How long has he been CEO? Less than a year? About a year? Something like that, but not very long at all. So the fact that all of a sudden he just left Jagex isn't a good sign imo.

 

 

 

Now perhaps it's true that a different company offered a higher salary. But in this economy? I'd doubt it, but I'd also have to agree it's possible.

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He was probably told to resign by Andrew or another primary stockholder, I wonder what he did.

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Might be completely unrelated but Jagex's 2008 financial figures are due tomorrow.

 

 

 

Maybe he wanted to leave on a high note, Or maybe the Gower brothers werent happy with the numbers. I am not wishing ill on Jagex by saying the latter.

 

 

 

But anyway, even though the changes I object to were probably decisions made by the Gower brothers, I just want to say Iddison, goodbye and good riddance.

 

 

 

(the CEO has nothing to do with game content, but it is nice to have a scapegoat :twss: )

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Iddison's employment history is:

 

C.E.O at Jagex Ltd (August 2007 - February 2009) - 1 year 6 months

 

CEO PayPal(Europe) Ltd at eBay (May 2000 - July 2007) - 7 years 3 months

 

C.O.O. at Christie's Inc (December 1995 - May 1999) - 3 years 6 months

 

Managing Director at I.P.S.Ltd (January 1991 - December 1995) - 5 years

 

Head of Product Development, R&D at Crosfield Electronics (Dupont) (July 1984 - January 1991) - 6 years 7 months

 

 

 

...That would make his time at Jagex his shortest tenure on record.

 

 

 

But anyway, even though the changes I object to were probably decisions made by the Gower brothers, I just want to say Iddison, goodbye and good riddance.

 

 

 

(the CEO has absolutley nothing to do with game content, but it is nice to have a scapegoat :twss: )

 

Well, Imre Jele (former Head of RuneScape) already left.

 

 

 

Im not even shure if the Gowers would have that athourity, since Ardrew is only the "Lead Developer" and Iddison is the CEO.

 

The Gower brothers own 52% of Jagex, so they still have a lot of power.

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Iddison's employment history is:

 

C.E.O at Jagex Ltd (August 2007 - February 2009) - 1 year 6 months

 

CEO PayPal(Europe) Ltd at eBay (May 2000 - July 2007) - 7 years 3 months

 

C.O.O. at Christie's Inc (December 1995 - May 1999) - 3 years 6 months

 

Managing Director at I.P.S.Ltd (January 1991 - December 1995) - 5 years

 

Head of Product Development, R&D at Crosfield Electronics (Dupont) (July 1984 - January 1991) - 6 years 7 months

 

 

 

...That would make his time at Jagex his shortest tenure on record.

 

 

 

But anyway, even though the changes I object to were probably decisions made by the Gower brothers, I just want to say Iddison, goodbye and good riddance.

 

 

 

(the CEO has absolutley nothing to do with game content, but it is nice to have a scapegoat :twss: )

 

Well, Imre Jele (former Head of RuneScape) already left.

 

 

 

Im not even shure if the Gowers would have that athourity, since Ardrew is only the "Lead Developer" and Iddison is the CEO.

 

The Gower brothers own 52% of Jagex, so they still have a lot of power.

 

 

 

I guess that is a bit suspicious. Maybe there is some kind of a shake-up going on in Jagex. Maybe, like Constant Tedder, who got the company going and established, Iddison has has done everything that the Gowers wanted to help them do (expand internationally, more advertising).

 

 

 

Maybe he was offered more money somewhere else. Or maybe there may be a negative reason behind his departure.

 

 

 

Or maybe im speculating a little too much.

 

 

 

Sorry I deleted the parts of my post you quoted, I was intending to fix the spelling but I had to go away from my computer to take care of something so I just deleted the mispelled lines.

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Geoff Iddison didn't last very long did he...

 

My thoughts exactly, it was a bit too sudden for my liking.

 

 

 

Ah well, he must have received a better offer from a different company or something, or he fell out with the Gowers. Or both. Speculation time! :twss:

~ W ~

 

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Maybe he was chased out of the Jagex Towers by the Gower brothers wielding bats.

 

 

 

Maybe he was rushing the QA team along, explaining why so many more updates this year were riddled with game breaking bugs and oversights, or unfinished?

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Maybe he was chased out of the Jagex Towers by the Gower brothers wielding bats.

 

 

 

Maybe he was rushing the QA team along, explaining why so many more updates this year were riddled with game breaking bugs and oversights, or unfinished?

 

 

 

I don't think he was pushed out forcibly, I was just specualting that as one of many possabilities based on the fact that their prospectus is out tomorrow(or a quarter report or whatever ren said)

 

 

 

I just think, like Constant Tedder, perhaps Iddison had just outlived his purpose in the company. Maybe they decided to take a different direction.

 

 

 

Based on the information in the article there is no way to tell, becasue when Constant Tedder left in 2007, the Gower brothers gave simmilar praise, and as far as I know, did not cite any real reason why he left.

 

 

 

Or maybe he got a job offer somwhere else, or maybe [insert speculation here]

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I don't think he was pushed out forcibly, I was just specualting that as one of many possabilities based on the fact that their prospectus is out tomorrow(or a quarter report or whatever ren said)

 

It is their directors' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2008.

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