Games industry leaders score in New Year Honours

Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens, former EA and ELSPA boss Paul Jackson and Sports Interactive founders Oliver and Paul Collyer have all be named in the The Queen’s New Year Honours list.

The bi-annual list of names recognising individual achievements has singled out the four for their various contributions to the games industry.

Cousens has been granted a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) title, Jackson has been given an Officer of the Order of the British Empire title (OBE) and the Collyers made Members of the British Empire (MBE).

Cousens, current CEO of Codemasters, started in the games industry in 1981 as founder of publisher Quicksilva. He then joined Activision to help set up its first UK base in 1986, subsequently establishing its development resource. Later on he served as senior management of Acclaim from 1991 to 2004, eventually becoming CEO. In 2005 he joined Codemasters a year after Acclaim shut down. Cousens has been involved in a number of industry trade body and charity initiatives throughout the last two decades.

Paul Jackson, meanwhile, is best known for a lengthy tenure at EA – he worked at the company for a number of years, first in a sales position, and eventually served as VP for North Europe at the publisher. He left in 2006 to become chairman of ELSPA – after having served as a key board member for the trade association for 12 years. Earlier this year he handed over the reins to Mike Rawlinson, and became CEO of specialist software firm RailSimulator.

Lastly, brothers Oliver and Paul Collyer founded Sports Interactive in 1992. The London-based studio has gone on to be the defining force in the sports management genre, regularly producing best-selling titles for PC and other formats. The now Sega-owned studio created both the Championship Manager and Football Manager franchises, amongst others.

Click here to read the full story about the Collyers’ win on Develop – including a statement from the two.