Thibaud de Saint-Quentin to Join Activision Blizzard as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of European Publishing
LONDON, March 2, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced the appointment of Thibaud de Saint-Quentin as the Senior Vice President and Managing Director of European Publishing, where he will oversee the company's regional strategy and long-term growth initiatives.
Thibaud, who joins the company as of 9th March, 2009, will be based out of its European headquarters in the UK, Stockley Park office and will report to Brian Hodous, Activision Blizzard's Chief Customer Officer.
Mr. de Saint-Quentin brings more than 20 years of management and business leadership experience to Activision, most recently serving as Vice President of Kraft Food's European coffee business, which had significant revenues. In his new role at Activision Blizzard, Mr. de Saint-Quentin will oversee the company's marketing and sales activities including key European accounts, channel management, category strategies and brand activation activities.
"The European market is critical to our continued profitable growth plans and we're delighted to have a talent of Thibaud's caliber on board to guide the organization to even higher levels of success," said Brian Hodous, Chief Customer Officer. "His leadership will be instrumental in the success of the company in Europe and I very much look forward to working with him in the coming years to further enhance our commercial agenda."
Mr. de Saint-Quentin has spent the past 20 years at Kraft Foods and has held such senior positions as Marketing Director in France of their Beverages (coffee) Division, Vice President Strategy and Business Development for cheese and grocery categories across Europe, Managing Director of Benelux and Vice President and Area Director for the UK and Ireland. Mr. de Saint-Quentin holds a master's degree from the Ecole Superiere des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) in Paris.
"I'm very proud to take up this new role at Activision Blizzard," said Thibaud de Saint-Quentin. "The gaming industry and Activision Blizzard in particular is an incredibly exciting business to be a part of and I'm looking forward to joining the team and leading Europe forward to the next level of growth."
Mr. de Saint-Quentin will replace Joerg Trouvain who is leaving the company due to personal reasons. Mr. Trouvain will be joining his family in Switzerland where he will take a new role outside of the games business.
In thanking Mr. Trouvain, Brian Hodous said, "During his tenure with the company, we made substantial progress in strengthening our business and have a solid foundation upon which to continue our success. We thank him for his contributions and wish him well in the future."
About Activision Blizzard, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide pure-play online, PC and console game publisher with leading market positions across every major category of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry.
Activision Blizzard maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Romania, Australia, Chile, India, Japan, China, South Korea and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activisionblizzard.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Blizzard's expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Activision Blizzard generally uses words such as "outlook," "will," "could," "would," "might," "remains," "to be," "plans," "believes," "may," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "estimate," future," "plan," "positioned," "potential," "project," "remain," "scheduled," "set to," "subject to," "upcoming" and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Activision Blizzard's actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales of Activision Blizzard's titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Activision Blizzard's ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Activision Blizzard's products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Activision Blizzard, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates, integration of recent acquisitions and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, Activision Blizzard's success in integrating the operations of Activision Publishing and Vivendi Games in a timely manner, or at all, and the combined company's ability to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies of the transaction to the extent, or in the timeframe, anticipated. Other such factors include additional risk factors identified in Activision Blizzard's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and Activision Blizzard assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
SOURCE Activision Blizzard, Inc.
http://www.activisionblizzard.com
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