IGDA Elects Four New Board Members

The members of the International Game Developers Association have elected four new members and re-elected Riptide Games founder Brian Robbins to its board, the organization announced today. Robbins, who is also currently board chairman, was elected to a new three-year term along with new board members Feargus Urquhart, Dustin Clingman and Cordy Rierson. New board member Scott Berfield was elected to a one-year seat. Participation in this year's elections was up to 18 percent of the IGDA's membership, a significant rise from the 11 percent who voted in 2010's board election. While the 1,418 ballots received were still 154 votes short of a quorum, the existing board selected to fill its openings with the top 5 vote getters from a field of 12 candidates. Urquhart joins the IGDA board as CEO of Fallout: New Vegas developers Obsidian Entertainment. His credits include games in the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, as well as early '90s Interplay titles like Clay Fighter and The Lost Vikings. Clingman serves as CEO of ZeeGee Games, which has done contract work for numerous serious game as well as casual titles on the Nintendo DS and iPhone. Rierson is the director of university talent development at Microsoft Game Studios. She's previously held positions are Foundation 9, The Collective and Virgin Interactive. Berfield works as an executive producer at the University of Washington's Center for Serious Play, and has been credited on titles including Sid Meier's Pirates!, Telltale's Wallace and Gromit games and Sega's Toejam & Earl among many others. The newcomers will start their terms on April 1, when the members will decide on a chairman for the new term. Big Huge Games's Tim Train, THQ VP for technology Mark DeLoura and IGDA treasurer Tom Buscaglia will be departing the board at that time.