Kelly Sumner

Kelly Sumner (born 29 April 1961), is CEO of MEEM SL Ltd, a UK-based design and innovation technology company, due to launch the MEEM cable in the UK in February 2016. The product launch follows a successful crowdfunding campaign, and is the first product of its kind to automatically back up mobile phone data as the device is being charged.

At the same time Kelly is holding the position of chairman at two interactive games developers, Quick Feet and Mediatonic and director of CRM software provider, Tpoint solutions.

Before setting up MEEM, Kelly was CEO of RedOctane, the games publisher of the world famous ‘Guitar Hero’. Within two years of joining RedOctane, he oversaw the development of one of the biggest games of the decade before ultimately selling the company in 2006 for $155m. Before this, he was on the board of Intent Media, publisher of Music Week, MCV and Development magazines, until it was sold to Newbay in 2012.

Prior to those roles, Kelly was CEO at US games publisher Gametek Inc, initially joining as MD of international operations before becoming CEO. Following the partial sale of the company to Take-Two Interactive, he ran the international operations for the publisher of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ before being promoted to CEO.

He left Take-Two after helping the company to increase its revenue from virtually nothing to almost $1billion and as CEO, he saw a quadrupling in the company’s share price.

Kelly began his career at Commodore UK, the UK subsidiary of Commodore International, joining as a trainee electronics engineer after leaving home at 16. Over 12 years he worked his way up to becoming MD via various positions in sales and marketing.

Kelly currently resides in Weybridge Surrey with his wife and two daughters after stints in Miami and NY. In 1992 Kelly won a Golden Joystick on Channel 4’s GamesMaster for completing a challenge playing The Humans on the now much-revered Amiga.

Quotes

I remember having a phone meeting and they said:

‘We’ve got this idea for a guitar product.’ And my heart sank. I had been involved with guitar products in the past

and they were all dead wood.

- Kelly Sumner, Former Red Octane CEO[1]

References

  1. ↑ "No one wanted to back it, no one wanted to stock it - the remarkable story of Guitar Hero". 12 March 2015.

No one wanted to back it, no one wanted to stock it - the remarkable story of Guitar Hero https://www.mcvuk.com/special-features/read/no-one-wanted-to-back-it-no-one-wanted-to-stock-it-the-remarkable-story-of-guitar-hero/0169

http://www.nesta.org.uk/event/investing-video-games-early-stage

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/no-more-guitar-heroes/01942

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/redoctane-appoints-kelly-sumner-as-new-ceo

http://icrowdnewswire.com/2015/04/09/meem-a-charger-cable-that-automatically-backs-up-the-personal-data-on-your-mobile-phone-when-it-is-charged/

http://crowdfundchampion.com/meem-charger-cable/

External links

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