Chris Ellis made IGN international MD, is "playa"
Seen Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder? That's Chris Ellis. The exec was made "Senior Vice President & Managing Director, International" of IGN today. He probably has a G5 "airplane".
He was previously a commercial boss at MySpace.
“I’m excited about building on these accomplishments, there’s a job to be done ensuring that our breadth and reach outside of the United States is recognised in the industry”, said Ellis.
“I’m here to make sure that our achievements in terms of user numbers and quality local content are mirrored
in our commercial success.”
Press release after the break.
IGN Entertainment names Chris Ellis
Senior Vice President & Managing Director, International
London, 18th March 2009 - IGN Entertainment, one of the strongest and
most trusted brands in the world of online gaming and entertainment, today
announced the appointment of Chris Ellis as Senior Vice President &
Managing Director, International.
In this newly established role, Ellis will be responsible for all non-US
operations across IGN Entertainment including, IGN.com the Web’s leading
video game and entertainment information destination, Rotten Tomatoes the
ultimate online movie destination, AskMen the Internet's top men's lifestyle
site and other IGN Entertainment sites.
Prior to this move, Ellis developed market leading commercial operations for
MySpace across Europe, helping to establish sales, operations and business
development teams in core European territories. Now Ellis is tasked with
strengthening the International IGN Entertainment business and increasing
the industry profile outside of the US. He will report to Roy Bahat, General
Manager, IGN Entertainment, based in Brisbane,US.
The last 12 months have seen significant success for IGN Entertainment
internationally; IGN.com, Rotten Tomatoes and Ask Men have all achieved
leading market position in their genres. According to IPSOS & IGN research
the gaming sector in particular continues to grow and attract new audiences
with 71% of the US population now playing video games*, and the
International video games market set to grow to $34 Billion by 2011** .
“I’m excited about building on these accomplishments, there’s a job to be
done ensuring that our breadth and reach outside of the United States is
recognised in the industry”, said Ellis “I’m here to make sure that our
achievements in terms of user numbers and quality local content are mirrored
in our commercial success.”
Prior to joining Fox Interactive Media, Ellis was Senior Vice President,
Business Development Group at AOL Europe, overseeing AOL’s Audience
and Digital Services growth strategy. He was instrumental in the sale of AOL’s
access business in 2006, and also negotiated a number the company’s high
profile partnerships including Google and Live8.
* IPSOS and IGN “Are you game?” research 2008
** PWC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2007-11