Keywords Studios Plc Regulatory News (KWS)

10 July 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Senior Management Team changes

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has made a number of key appointments within its leadership team to strengthen the business, further drive integration and support its continued growth path.

Igor Efremov who had various roles in Enterprise Systems Management at Electronic Arts, before founding and running Sperasoft, which was acquired by Keywords in December 2017, has been appointed to the new role of Chief Commercial Officer. In this position, Igor will lead the seven global Service Lines of Keywords as well as the global Business Development team which continues to be ably led by Michael Wallen. Igor assumes the leadership of the Service Lines from Giacomo Duranti, COO, and the Business Development responsibility from Andrew Day, CEO. Giacomo, retains responsibility for global operations, IT, Legal and M&A execution and will now take on the leadership of Human Resources and the Regional, Country and Studio Management organisation which had been headed up by Andrew Day. Giacomo will be supported by Mark Rizzo, formerly COO of Sperasoft who is taking up the role of Global Operations Director. Prior to cofounding Sperasoft, Mark held senior technology management positions at video games companies, Electronic Arts, Sony, NCSoft, and Trion Worlds.

Keywords has appointed Andrew Brown to the newly created role of Chief Marketing Officer. Andrew has a background in marketing and general management initially within consumer products groups including Danone, Coca Cola and Johnson & Johnson and held roles of UK Managing Director and SVP Americas at Activision Blizzard.

Jamie Campbell who joined the Group through the acquisition of d3t Ltd in October 2017 has taken up the role of Service Line Director for the Engineering Services Line. Prior to founding d3t, where Jamie was CEO, he was Technical Director at games developer and publisher, THQ Inc. and has an early background in embedded systems engineering and games programming.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, commented:

"These changes and additions to our leadership team at Keywords add capability and capacity as we continue to develop our global video games services platform. Welcoming companies into the Keywords family and integrating them including to the extent of complementing the leadership team with talented individuals from those companies, is something we pride ourselves on and it is pleasing to see this being reflected in these latest people moves.

"For me personally, devolving some of the day to day responsibilities to Giacomo and Igor means I can continue to drive our strategic vision, originate M&A opportunities and interface with our employee, client and investor stakeholders more effectively."

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Notes to Editors

Keywords Studios is an international technical services provider to the global video games industry. Established in 1998, and now with over 42 facilities in 20 countries strategically located in Asia, the Americas and Europe, it provides integrated art creation, software engineering, testing, localisation, audio and customer care services across more than 50 languages and 16 games platforms to a blue-chip client base of approximately 650 clients across the globe. It has a strong market position, providing services to 23 of the top 25 most prominent games companies, including Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Konami, Riot Games, Sony, Square Enix, Supercell, TakeTwo, and Ubisoft. Recent titles worked on include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Call of Duty: WWII, Mortal Combat X, Assassin's Creed Origins, Battlefield 1, League of Legends, Fortnite, Clash Royale, and Mobile Strike. Keywords Studios is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (KWS.L). 

www.keywordsstudios.com