Jagex Appoints Gerhard as CEO

RuneScape developer Jagex announced the promotion of Mark Gerhard, formerly the company's chief technical officer, to CEO, effective February 2nd. Gerhard replaces Geoff Iddison, who was previously CEO of PayPal's European operations and was brought into Jagex as CEO in October 2007 with the intention of "[accelerating] international growth." He resigned from the company last month for undisclosed reasons. "I have enjoyed working for Jagex immensely," says Geoff Iddison. "The business remains at the cutting edge of the video games industry and its continued growth reflects the strong business model and the high calibre of people within the company. It was great to be part of a business which is shaping the industry in such a way." Gerhard joined Jagex in February 2008, and was previously principle security architect for the national lottery at gaming and lottery technology systems company Gtech. Based in Cambridge, England and founded in 1999, Jagex's flagship title is free-to-play browser-based MMORPG Runescape, which claims some 5.3 million active players per month. The company also launched FunOrb, a casual games portal, last February. "On behalf of everyone at Jagex, I’d like to thank Geoff for everything he has brought to the business over the last 18 months, and wish him all the best with his future endeavours," says Jagex founder Andrew Gower. "We have an exciting year planned for 2009 and are confident of continued success with Mark as our new CEO. Mark has performed exceptionally well since joining the company last year and I am sure that Jagex will continue to flourish under his leadership."