Linden Lab CEO steps down

Two weeks on from the announcement of a 30 per cent workforce reduction, Linden Lab has confirmed that CEO Mark Kingdon has stepped down.

He will be replaced by founder Philip Rosedale, who himself stepped down as CEO in 2008, on an interim basis. Former CFO Bob Komin has also been promoted to COO.

This is a big, tough change but one the board of directors and management team deeply believes in,” Rosedale said in a blog post.

We owe Mark great thanks for the many things we’ve accomplished in these last two years – most notably a great improvement in the stability of Second Life, and also the hiring and nurturing of a strong team of new leaders who are now ready to do some amazing work together.

Our thinking as a team is that my returning to the CEO job now can bring a product and technology focus that will help rapidly improve Second Life. We need to simplify and focus our product priorities – concentrating all our capabilities on making Second Life easier to use and better for the core experiences that it is delivering today. I think that I can be a great help and a strong leader in that process.

It is an honor to have a chance to help more directly again, and I come to this mission with energy, excitement, and an open mind about what we need and how we need to do it. I want to see Second Life continue to grow, amaze, and change the world. It’s what gets me up in the morning.”

Kingdon had previously signalled the company’s intentions to create a browser-base version of the virtual world and stepping up its integration with social networks. The last time it spoke on the record Linden Lab insisted that it still expects record profits in 2010.