GAME names new CEO

The search is over. GAME has found its replacement for former CEO Lisa Morgan.

Former Vodafone UK commercial director Ian Shepherd has stepped in as permanent replacement for Morgan.

He takes over properly from June 28th – four months after he departed Vodafone for new opportunties.

At Vodafone he’s credited with the telecoms firm’s retail redesign, and as UK commercial director led a division with over 3bn in revenue. His responsibility there covered 400 stores and 2,000 staff, the product and brand marketing teams, plus online sales and mobile web.

Prior to Vodafone he worked at BSkyB for nine years – five of which were as customer marketing director.

"I am very pleased to be joining GAME Group," said Shepherd this morning.

"I want to build and strengthen the Group’s relationship with our millions of customers and develop our customer offering further to deliver long-term growth. Video gaming is a creative, dynamic and fast evolving business.

"As European market leader, GAME is in a strong position to deliver the best experience for all video games customers, working closely with our partners in the industry.”

He joins game during a difficult period for the firm – his appointment was announced as part of a trading update that also outlined a final round of store closures and the fallout from lower hardware sales as the firm shapes up its business.

But GAME chairman Peter Lewis said that Shepherd is the right fit to push the business forward.

In a statement this morning he said: I am delighted that Ian has accepted the role of Chief Executive. He is a young, dynamic CEO with very strong consumer expertise and good knowledge of the PC and video games market. The strength of our business lies with our brands, customer relationship management, and supplier partnerships. Ian has a proven track record in each of these areas. The Board is confident that he has the talent and energy to develop our customer proposition further and to drive the business forward.

On behalf of the Board I would also like to thank Chris Bell for stepping in to the interim CEO role during the recruitment process.”