Cambridge, UK – Jagex, a leading UK video game company and developer of the RuneScape franchise of games, is pleased to announce the appointment of Marc Allera as Chairman of the Board. As part of the Company’s new direction under CVC & Haveli ownership, the appointment of Marc is a significant addition to the leadership team, as Marc brings a depth of experience leading consumer-centric businesses across technology, telecoms and media sectors.
As the CEO of the Consumer Division at BT, Marc leads three of the UK's largest consumer brands – BT, EE, and Plusnet – and serves as Chair of board for the BT Sport / TNT joint venture. With a responsibility for almost 30 million customer connections, Marc and his team have overseen a significant transformation of BT’s Consumer business, introducing new products, services, and capabilities as well as driving the rollout of 5G and Fibre networks. Marc’s experience leading BT Sport, with its passionate sport fanbase, will offer specific expertise to serve Jagex's community of players, adding valuable insights and leadership to help grow the community’s engagement.
Before his role at BT, Marc served for over 10 years as the Chief Commercial Officer of Three, driving the company's growth from a startup into a major player in the mobile market. Earlier in his career, Marc also worked at SEGA, where as General Manager for the UK he led the launch of the world’s first online video game console, the Dreamcast.
The appointment of Marc as Chairman is a testament to Jagex's commitment to strengthening its leadership team with world-class executive talent, and it now looks forward to making the most of Marc’s expertise to achieve its full potential. Through this next phase, the Company will be looking to make continued improvements to the existing RuneScape games with new content and features for players, improving the accessibility of its games on various platforms, and reinvesting into new IP content to create the exciting games of tomorrow.
Jagex's CEO, Phil Mansell, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Marc Allera to our team as Chairman. His extensive experience in consumer business and his entrepreneurial spirit perfectly suits with our strategic goals for RuneScape and our players. Marc's expertise in large-scale consumer businesses, entertainment brands and fan communities is ideal for the ambitions we have for taking Jagex to the next level.”
Marc Allera commented, "I’m delighted to be joining the board of Jagex at this significant stage in its development, and being able to return to the video games industry with such a great role. I’m looking forward to using my experience with content, consumers and communities to support Phil and his team to achieve their plans for RuneScape, Old School RuneScape and other titles, as well as working with the leadership team and new owners CVC and Haveli to invest and help drive success in this exciting next chapter for Jagex.”
About Jagex
A leader in creating deep and engaging live games on PC and mobile, Jagex’s flagship game RuneScape, has welcomed over 320 million player accounts to its MMORPG world and is a $1.5 billion lifetime revenue franchise. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond live operations; our titles are forever games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds. Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, offer ever-evolving, highly active worlds with a community-focused development ethos.
Jagex has expanded with the acquisitions of Pipeworks and Gamepires, bringing its expertise in building forever games to SCUM, a multi-million selling open-world survival title in Steam Early Access. Jagex employs more than 700 people globally, and is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom.