San Mateo, CA, February 26th, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) Digital Chocolate, Inc., a leading publisher of high-quality, original software for mobile phones, today announced a series of executive management appointments that will shape the company's global direction for 2007.
Ilkka Paananen has been promoted to president of studios to lead Digital Chocolate's global product development. Ilkka, who has served as Digital Chocolate's European managing director since 2004, will now be responsible for the worldwide production of all company products across its multiple, international Studio hubs. Ilkka was a co-founder of Sumea, a mobile game developer acquired by Digital Chocolate in 2004, where he held the role of CEO since 2000.
Gary Schofield has been promoted to president of networks. In this role, Gary will drive all facets of the company's global revenue and operations, as well as lead the marketing, sales and business development organizations worldwide. Gary served as vice president of sales since 2005 and vice president of sales and marketing since 2006, both at Digital Chocolate. Before joining Digital Chocolate, Gary held executive and senior sales management positions at Seven Networks, Oracle and IBM.
Jason Loia has been named chief operating officer reporting to Gary and will be responsible for worldwide operations, including porting the company's software across multiple platforms, carriers and handsets. Additionally, he leads custom product development efforts. Since 2004, Jason served as vice president of operations at Digital Chocolate. Prior to joining Digital Chocolate, Jason held the roles of vice president of product development and executive producer since 2001 at Lavastorm, a mobile game developer for Disney, Sega and other media companies.
"These management changes signify Digital Chocolate's continuing focus on global expansion and will allow us to grow our operations on a worldwide scale," said Trip Hawkins, founder and CEO of Digital Chocolate. "We've recorded multiple profitable quarters and are looking forward to continuing this trend well into 2007. The combination of a newly strengthened executive team and consistent profitability will allow us to efficiently enter new markets as the industry leader in quality, innovation and originality in mobile games."
Recent successes contributing to Digital Chocolate's growth include nine award wins, including 'Best Developer' and 'Wireless Game of the Year' in the 2006 IGN.com Game of the Year awards. In December 2006, Tornado Mania! made IGN.com history as the first mobile game to earn a perfect score from the review team. The company also announced major partnerships with HBO and EMI Music Canada.
About Digital Chocolate
Digital Chocolate is a leading developer of original, high-quality games and applications for mobile phones. Based in San Mateo, California and founded in 2003 by software gaming pioneer Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate offers some of the world's most popular and top-rated games, already earning over 20 Game of the Year Awards and over 50 Editor's Awards by top gaming press. In 2006, it was named Best Games Developer at the Mobile Entertainment Awards, decided by a voting panel of over 300 mobile company executives including leading Operators, OEMs, Publishers and Developers. It was also named a 2006 Fierce 15 emerging wireless company for its innovation around community, networked and social games with products like award-winning MLSN Sports Picks, and newly released AvaPeepsTM: FlirtNation. Since its inception, Digital Chocolate has secured relationships with more than 200 carriers and partners, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cingular, Orange and 3 and its products are available in over 60 countries around the world.
