In a surprise announcement earlier this year, Jason Della Rocca announced that he was stepping down from his role as Executive Director at the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). Now, months later, the association has finally appointed a replacement, Joshua Caulfield, who comes to the group with more than a decade of association leadership experience. As Della Rocca did, Caulfield will now "work closely with the elected board to further the IGDA’s goals of advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers everywhere."
Interestingly, Caulfield's experience does not come from within the games industry. He comes to the IGDA from the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA) where he served as executive vice president and interim executive director. In the past, he's held a number of senior level positions in business management and marketing, including consulting advisor/chief marketing officer for TechRiver and director of marketing/new media for the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers’ Institute.
“The decision to hire someone from outside the games industry was not taken lightly,” said Bob Bates, Chairman of the IGDA. “But when the board examined the challenges we face, we realized our key volunteers already have a wealth of industry knowledge, and what we needed was an experienced association professional to help us manage the organization to better serve the needs of our SIGs, Chapters, and members worldwide.”
“While the executive director role has traditionally been an outward-facing one,” Bates continued, “in the future the chair will take on the spokesperson role to enable the executive director to focus on the critical tasks of running the association.”
“The games industry is filled with talented people and the IGDA has a position of great importance in representing the development community,” commented Caulfield. “The opportunity to work with the board and become a greater catalyst in the growth of the association is something that fits perfectly with my experience and capabilities. I’m confident the IGDA will become an even greater organization over the next several years.”
Although Caulfield is new to the gaming space, he's not new to video games at least. He claims to be an avid gamer. “I enjoy single-player games,” he said, “but I also have a group of friends who move between MMOs. Most recently we’ve been playing World of Warcraft, where I am a shadow priest and backup healer – support roles that reflect my real world positions of providing support within associations.”
We wish Caulfield good luck in his new position, as we believe the IGDA serves a great purpose in this industry and deserves proper leadership to help advance developers' causes.
