Riot Games has already got the company’s new CEO after Nicolo Laurent left the position. Recently, news broke out that the former CEO wanted to devote himself to his family and personal projects; therefore, the developer had to get a new CEO.
Riot Games has informed us that the new CEO is Dylan Jadeja, who was already part of the company. At the same time, they have informed us that Nicolo Laurent is now playing an advisory role.
Nicolo Laurent has been the CEO of Riot Games since 2017. However, this 2023 he decided to focus on his projects, so he has decided to leave that position. However, he is not leaving the company completely, as he will be the advisor to the new CEO.
The video game developer has informed us that by the end of 2023, Dylan Jadeja’s transition as CEO should be completed.
Dylan Jadeja, the new CEO of Riot Games
Nicolo Laurent is leaving the video game developer after working there for 14 years, the last six of which he served as CEO. Laurent announced his departure from Riot through Twitter, where he commented at this stage that he wished to return to France to devote himself to his family.
After 14 years at Riot and 6 as CEO, later this year I’ll check off something that’s been on my quest log for a while: Stepping away from CEO to focus on family, plan a relocation back to France, and play flex queue with my four kids (wishful thinking on that last bit). <1/3>
— nicolo (@niiicolo) May 11, 2023
In turn, Nicolo Laurent reported that the company had sought the ideal person to replace him among Riot employees as people outside the company. Laurent claims they found the ideal candidate Dylan Jadeja after a long search.
As mentioned, Dylan Jadeja had already been with Riot Games for a few years. Jadeja joined the Riot family in 2011 to serve as Chief Financial Officer.
It is important to note that the selection process for the new CEO did not happen overnight. According to Laurent, Riot’s management worked for about three years to find the right person.
On the other hand, Laurent claims that the board’s decision to promote Dylan Jadeja to the CEO position to replace Nicolo Laurent was unanimous.
Nicolo Laurent’s track record as CEO of Riot Games
As mentioned, Nicolo Laurent served as Riot’s CEO for six years. Laurent has been in very good times for the company and in difficult times.
For example, Nicolo Laurent was one of the people in charge of the project of the popular Netflix series Arcane. But he was also at the company’s helm when a group of workers sued Riot for gender discrimination; this lawsuit was settled very recently, and Riot must pay those affected $ 100 million.
Another difficult moment in Nicolo Laurent’s CEO career was when Riot Games 2018 was accused of having a sexist culture within the company. After all those accusations, the company lost major sponsors.
It was certainly not an easy road for Laurent. However, he managed to successfully manage the company’s two titles, LoL and VALORANT. These two video games are two of the most important titles in esports.