Radical Entertainment is pleased to announce the appointment of Kelly Zmak to the newly created positions of Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Product Development.
Zmak will report directly to Radical Entertainment President Ian Wilkinson and be responsible for all facets of the company's strategic plan. Zmak, who has nearly 20 years experience in the digital entertainment industry, will oversee day-to-day management of the company, says Wilkinson.
"Kelly’s main job will be to help us continue to improve the quality of our games and grow our studio," says Wilkinson. "He will manage all studio operations, including supervision of all studio activities relating to product development.
From 2002 to 2004, Zmak was Vice President, Product Games, for Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) Northwest, based in Bellevue, WA. Radical Entertainment was formally purchased by VUG last March after a long and successful development partnership. Zmak says he jumped at the opportunity to assume a leadership role at Radical, a company poised for great growth.
"The exciting thing for me is that Radical is perfectly positioned for the next generation of gaming platforms. Radical has incredible talent on all sides of the business, from development and technology expertise through to creative excellence," says Zmak. "Radical is committed to creating big games and pushing the envelope in terms of advancing game-play mechanics and graphic capabilities."
While at VUG, Zmak partnered with Radical Entertainment on development projects and was immediately impressed by the Vancouver-based company's innovative work culture. Radical is continually ranked as one of the best places to work in B.C. (#1 in 2002, #3 in 2004), according to BC Business magazine and Watson Wyatt.
"I have long been a proponent of how Radical's work-culture philosophy and how they value employees. I think the beauty of the VUG relationship is they have every desire to preserve that positive atmosphere and creative drive. Maintaining Radical's award-winning work culture is a large part of my mandate," says Zmak.