Last month, Strauss Zelnick replaced Richard Parsons as the chairman of the CBS Corp. board of directors, but that hasn’t changed his focus on Take-Two Interactive and his leadership there, he said during Take-Two’s earnings call Wednesday.
Zelnick said his role new role at CBS is specifically “interim and non-executive, so you have to think of it as a board seat.” Zelnick became the chairman, chief executive officer, and largest shareholder of Take-Two Interactive, which owns video game development labels Rockstar Games and 2K Games as well as Private Division, following a takeover in 2007.
“Take-Two is where my head and my heart remains,” Zelnick said when his new role at CBS came up during the earnings call. “I’m firmly committed to the company and I love what I do every day.”
Zelnick went on to note that Take-Two Interactive, which recently published “Red Dead Redemption 2” to record-breaking sales and critic acclaim, has about 4,300 employees and that he’s proud of everything the company as a team achieves.
“Take-Two has a fantastic stage, amazing culture, and remains the place of choice for the best people to work in entertainment,” he said. “I’m grateful to be able to do this every day. I’m entirely committed to Take-Two and continue to be so.”
Parsons cited health reasons as his rationale for leaving the role at CBS. The company has been recreating itself in the wake of CEO Leslie Moonves being forced out following a pair of New Yorker articles in which several women alleged he made unwanted sexual advances to them over the course of several years. CBS hired two law firms to probe the accusations, some of which Moonves has disputed. The company’s next annual meeting is set for Dec. 11.