EA's executive vice president of studios David Gardner, who only last month was awarded an OBE on the Queen's honours list, is to leave the company according to reports.

Gardner helped establish EA Europe in 1987 and has been with the company since 1983.

A statement given to Gamesindustry.biz says: "David built a European business for EA that today generates more than $1 billion annually. Over the years, he became a cornerstone of our culture and the ethical code that we live by. We wish him the very best. David and his family will always have a home at EA."

Gardner wants to leave EA and return to Europe with his family. He was EA's director of European sales and marketing and managing director of EA Europe after helping found the territory office.

He was then senior vice president and managing director of European publishing form 1999 to 2003, and from 2005 was EVP and COO of EA Worldwide Studios.

Although Gardner's decision is not related to the recent company restructuring, his departure represents another part of the changing face of EA's development workforce.

With the company reforming around four core brands, the studios in its global network of developers are changing to match, hopefully for the better according to EA bosses who now say the development workforce will be able to react quicker to the market and produce better content - EA UK is one such studio gearing up for changes, as Develop revealed last month.