Although I normally use this blog to discuss business issues related to social gaming, I wanted to elaborate on my recent career move and thank all the great people at Disney International that I have worked with the past year.
Today is my first day as the CEO of 519 Games (no, our website it not up yet). 519 is a joint venture of two media companies, the EW Scripps Company (http://www.scripps.com/) and Capitol Broadcasting (http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/). We are currently building a fantastic team and will be one of the top five social gaming companies (both social web and social mobile) by the end of 2012. More details will emerge over the next few weeks.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of my former colleagues with Disney International. The people I met and worked with in Europe, Russia, India and Latin America were some of the most incredible, smartest and nicest individuals that I have ever worked with. I originally was going to call them out specifically, but every time I wrote a draft of this post I remembered somebody else. I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I would forget someone who improved my experience.
From the top of Disney International down, it is an incredible and diverse group. Everybody was approachable, everybody was nice and friendly and everyone worked together. Yet the diverse personalities were what made the last year so great. Although it is difficult to articulate, I met literally hundreds of people who had larger than life personalities, all unique, all creative and all helpful.
It was this great collection of people that helped me learn and grow professionally that I can now move on to the biggest opportunity I have ever had. Again, thank you all.
The Business of Social Games and Casino 