Linden Lab Names Rod Humble New CEO

Second Life creator Linden Lab has named Rod Humble its new CEO. Humble comes to Linden from Electronic Arts, where he served as Executive Vice President of the EA Play label. EA Play is the label that published The Sims and its various sequels. Humble is a 20-year games industry veteran who has worked on over 200 titles. Prior to his work with Electronic Arts, Humble served as Vice President of Product Development at Sony Online Entertainment, overseeing work on the MMORPG EverQuest.

“Second Life has become a consistently large and profitable business with a thriving virtual economy built together with its passionate Resident community.  This has always been a big, long-term vision, it is still early and there is enormous opportunity for growth. With Rod’s fresh insights and deep experience in creating and leading the development of fun, intuitive, immersive entertainment experiences that have attracted massive audiences of loyal users, he’s the right leader to understand what makes us special and bring the next level of growth to Second Life,” said Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life, in a press statement.

Linden Lab announced through an official blog post that Humble would begin work at the company in mid-January and is currently familiarizing himself with the Second Life environment. Humble has developed numerous “art games” in his spare time, including The Marriage, Stars Over Half Moon Bay, and Last Thoughts of the Aurochs. Linden has been without a CEO since founder Philip Rosedale stepped down in late October. Prior CEO Mark Kingdom departed in late June, following a series of highly-publicized layoffs.

“Joining Linden Lab is a very exciting opportunity,” said Humble, in a press statement. “I have a long standing interest in the how the boundaries of society and economics change as communications evolve in new ways. Second Life is unique: it sits at the intersection of virtual worlds, avatars, and human contact. The Residents and developers of Second Life have built something very special, I am honored to join the talented team at Linden Lab to help expand this new frontier.”

Join us for App Conference – October 18-19, 2012 in Santa Clara