Activision Blizzard continues staff shuffle with leadership appointments

09 January 2019

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Activision Blizzard has continued its staff shuffle with the appointment of three new leadership roles.

The video game company has appointed people that already held positions there, or for one of its major divisions.

Activision Blizzard

Rob Kostich, former Executive Vice President and General Manager of Call of Duty has been named President of Activision. Kostich has worked for Activision for almost 15 years and lead the hit first-person shooter franchise for 10 years. His new role includes the overseeing of strategy and operations of the business unit.

Dennis Durkin will now also act as President of Activision Blizzard’s Emerging Businesses, working closely with the leadership team that heads up each of the company’s divisions. On January 2nd, Durkin was reappointed as the company’s CFO following the departure of Spencer Neumann – who joined Netflix after being fired for unknown reasons. Durkin previously served in the position from early 2012 to mid 2017, serving as the CCO until he was reappointed in the role.

Humam Sakhnini has been named as President of King Digital, taking on the responsibility of overseeing all of the operational management alongside Riccardo Zacconi, the company’s CEO. Sakhnini served as its CFO and CSO from April 2016, prior to which he spent six years as the Chief Strategy and Talent Officer of Activision Blizzard.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard discussed the appointments in a statement: “Rob, Humam, Dennis and J. exemplify our deep bench of operational and commercial leadership. These capable and seasoned executives have shown unwavering commitment to our company, our employees, and our beloved community of fans around the world. With these proven, principled leaders at the helm, we will continue to invest in the strategic growth drivers of our business; our talented people, and creating the world’s best videogames, live services, mobile experiences, and new and growing franchise engagement models.”

Esports Insider says: All of Activision Blizzard’s major divisions has now undergone leadership changes in recent months. This, in theory, could see quite a few changes hit the business units but it’ll likely be hard to recognise those from the public perspective. Hopefully the company settles down sooner rather than later and proceeds to create great games and experiences.

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