SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Big Fish Games today announced that Paul Thelen, age 44 and Big Fish Games’ founder, previous president and CEO, and current chief strategy officer and chairman of its board of directors, will assume the roles of president and CEO from Jeremy Lewis, effective April 30. Lewis will continue on Big Fish’s board of directors.
“Six years ago, I joined Big Fish Games’ founder, Paul Thelen, to partner with him to build Big Fish,” said Lewis. “Since then, we’ve grown the company organically through several life stages and emerged as a leading digital brand with strong momentum and huge continued potential. This is a natural point in our company’s progression for me to pass my responsibilities as president and CEO back to Paul, who will bring his characteristic entrepreneurial drive and creativity to the forefront.”
“I want to thank Jeremy for his leadership and for the many milestones achieved on his watch,” said Thelen. “Each year since its founding, Big Fish Games has generated substantial revenue growth and we are on-track for another record year in 2012. Later this year, we anticipate the commercial launch of our Universal Cloud Gaming Service, the expansion of our PC, Mac and Mobile marketplaces to offer free-to-play games, and the extension of our reach into Facebook starting with the category leading Ace Casino platform.”
Thelen launched Big Fish’s first hit game, Mahjong Towers, in 2002. He later established Big Fish Marketplace, a data and analytics driven web platform that now provides millions of consumers premium casual games developed by the company’s hundreds of development partners.
In 2008, Big Fish closed an $83 million financing, expanded its footprint to 10 languages and extended its marketplace to mobile. In 2010, Big Fish surpassed one billion consumer downloads on PC and Mac, and in 2011 it emerged as a top 10 publisher on iPad and launched internal R&D for the Universal Cloud Gaming Service, which will be introduced later this year. The company had also announced 30 percent year-on-year growth and sales of more than $180 million in 2011.
About Big Fish Games
Founded in 2002, Big Fish is the leading online marketplace for premium casual games. Through its proprietary, data driven platform, millions of consumers seeking immersive, relaxing entertainment easily discover and purchase premium casual games created by Big Fish’s network of more than 500 development partners and in-house by Big Fish Games Studios. Renowned for offering A New Game Every Day!® on www.bigfishgames.com, the company offers thousands of games on multiple platforms -- PC, Mac, mobile phone, and tablet. Big Fish’s websites, games, and customer service are available in ten languages – Danish, Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish – and its games are sold in more than 150 countries. The company is headquartered in Seattle, WA, with regional offices in Oakland, CA; Vancouver, Canada; Cork, Ireland; and Luxembourg.