Blitz appoints Richard Smithies as Finance Director/CFO
6th February 2006, Leamington Spa. Blitz Games Limited is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Smithies as Finance Director / CFO of the company with responsibility for all financial and legal dealings.
Richard joined Blitz (www.BlitzGames.com), one of the largest independent video games developers in the world, in 2004. However, he has known and advised the company and its owners since the inception of the business in 1990.
Richard will continue his role as Head of TruSim (www.TruSim.com), the company's game-based training, visualisation and learning division. Richard has an engineering degree and is a chartered banker with extensive debt, equity and corporate finance advisory experience in several countries, including over five years in investment banking in the United States. Before joining Blitz Games he had worked as a regional head of acquisitions and private equity for one of the UK's top accounting firms. Other experience includes several years as director of global loan syndications and then director of the global high technologies group of the investment banking arm of one of the UK's top clearing banks. He also enjoys playing video games!
Philip Oliver, co-founder and Managing Director of Blitz commented, 'We're delighted to have Richard on board, his knowledge, experience and sheer energy and enthusiasm is a huge asset for us.'
Richard Smithies, Finance Director added, 'I'm extremely pleased to take this position within Blitz at such an exciting time for the company. New business areas and the transition to next generation video game platforms bring challenges and opportunities which we are more than ready to tackle.'
Blitz is currently hiring staff in all disciplines (including TruSim and Volatile Games - Blitz' mature games division) to work on a large variety of games, from kids' licenses to gritty titles.
For information on employment opportunities visit: www.BlitzGames.com and www.VolatileGames.com
For all other information please contact:
Alison Beasley at Lincoln Beasley PR.
T: +44 (0) 1608 645756
E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk
M: +44 (0) 7966 449130
www.lincolnbeasley.co.uk
About Blitz Games
Blitz Games Limited (www.BlitzGames.com) is one of the world's largest independent developers of video games for entertainment consoles and the PC. It was founded in 1990 by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver and now boasts approximately 160 staff. The Olivers are responsible for developing over 100 games since the early 1980s and their company has just released several new titles, including Pac-Man World 3 and Bratz: Rock Angelz. Current titles in development include several major licensed-based games. The company continues its huge long-term investment into BlitzWare, its in-house technology, which is acknowledged as one of the best game development environments in the world. Blitz is based in Leamington Spa, UK.
Volatile Games (www.VolatileGames.com) is the division of Blitz Games focused on developing games with mature content. Current titles in development include the next generation console original title Possession and a major licensed-based game for the UK's largest publisher.
TruSim (www.TruSim.com) is the serious games division of Blitz Games. It was founded with the aim of applying the company's leading edge technology and skills to produce engaging, innovative and validated training simulations and visualisation tools (called Serious Games) for the government, military, healthcare, corporate, first response and education markets. A Serious Game can be defined as a game whose sole purpose is not entertainment. TruSim is a co-founder of the Serious Games Alliance (www.SeriousGamesAlliance.com).