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Ryan has been with Sony’s PlayStation division since 1994, holding various senior roles and leading it during the PlayStation 5 launch amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), is retiring after nearly 30 years with the company.
Sony said that Ryan plans to retire in March 2024. The company plans to appoint its president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki to the role of SIE chair next month to help support this “transition” period. Totoki will then be appointed as SIE interim CEO from 1 April next year, while retaining his other roles at Sony.
Ryan first joined SIE – the company that operates Sony’s PlayStation brand – in 1994, through its Europe-based legal entity. He has held various senior positions within the company over his long career, including president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, SIE head of global sales and marketing and deputy president.
In 2019, Ryan became the president and CEO of SIE, leading the company as it prepared to launch the PlayStation 5. This device launched towards the end of 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida spoke positively of Ryan’s work during this period in particular and said he was grateful for “all his achievements”.
“Jim Ryan has been an inspirational leader throughout his entire period with us, but never more so than in overseeing the launch of PlayStation 5 in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic,” Yoshida said. “That extraordinary achievement made by the entire SIE team has been steadily built on and PlayStation 5 is on track to become SIE’s most successful console yet.”
In a comment, Ryan explained his reason for leaving as he has found it difficult to “reconcile” living in Europe while working in North America.
“I will leave having been privileged to work on products that have touched millions of lives across the world; PlayStation will always be part of my life, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of SIE,” Ryan said.
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