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Keywords Studios CEO Andrew Day has announced his retirement, following a recent health scare that prompted a “reassessment” of his priorities.
Day’s retirement comes after he took a temporary leave of absence for health reasons on March 15th, and has now resigned his role as CEO and as a director of the Board with immediate effect. Day will be available to the Board in an advisory capacity for an initial period of six months, in order to ensure a smooth transition as the company looks for his successor. Jon Hauck and Sonia Sedler will be acting as joint interim CEOs in the meantime.
“I am deeply proud of the business that we have built together,” said Day, “which over my 12 years as CEO has grown from a privately held company with a single localisation and testing studio in Dublin employing 50 people, to a publicly traded global technical and creative services group with more than 9,000 people in 69 studios in 22 countries working passionately with our video games publisher and developer clients to create, adapt and support so many of the world’s leading games.
“It has been a huge honour to lead the wonderful Keywordians around the world. Whilst my recent health scare has brought about a reassessment of my priorities and brought forward a retirement that I was otherwise looking forward to in the coming few years, I am pleased to be leaving the Group in such a strong position to continue to deliver on its proven strategy.”
Day has been at Keywords since 2009, and has overseen the company growing from a single site operation, to over 69 studios in 22 countries, with a staff count of over 9,000 people. For more on his outlook to running Keywords read out cover interview with him from 2019.
“Whilst we are sad to see Andrew go, we fully support his decision to bring his retirement plans forward and wish him a very happy retirement,” said Ross Graham, Chairman of Keywords Studios.
“Over the 12 years since taking over the reins from the founders in 2009, Andrew has led the building of Keywords into the ‘go-to’ global video games services platform it is today.
“It is a tribute to his leadership that he leaves the Group in great shape with a strong and broad leadership team that is well equipped to both drive the company’s strategy forward and enhance its operational performance. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank him for his incredible commitment and contribution to the Group over the last 12 years.
“Under Jon’s and Sonia’s direction, the Group has continued to perform strongly whilst also continuing to add scale and reach through the recent acquisitions of the high quality businesses, Tantalus Media and Climax Studios. The Group is well placed, with a leading position in the buoyant video games market and a strong balance sheet, to continue to build upon its strong platform both organically and through selective acquisitions from a healthy pipeline of opportunities.”
