WASHINGTON — Michael Gallagher, the president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, which represents the video game industry, will step down at the end of the month.
Gallagher served in the post for the past 11 years. The ESA board will begin a search for a successor, and Stanley Pierre-Louis, ESA’s senior vice president and general counsel, will serve as interim president.
Robert Altman, the chairman and CEO of ZeniMax Media Inc. and chairman of ESA’s board of directors, said in a statement that “under Mike’s leadership, ESA has developed a strong reputation with policy makers for vigorously defending the industry during watershed moments, including the industry’s victory on First Amendment principles before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mike was also instrumental in revitalizing E3 into the most prominent and important industry show produced today.”
The Supreme Court in 2011 struck down a California law that banned the sale of ultra violent video games to minors.
“Together, we have delivered an unbroken string of victories in the states, on Capitol Hill, and before the U.S. Supreme Court, all of which bolster the industry’s ability to create and innovate,” Gallagher said in a statement. “Extending and protecting that opportunity has been extraordinarily fulfilling.”
Gallagher’s son, Daniel, gaming and e-sports specialist at Red Peg Marketing, tweeted about his father.
More to come…