Another Surprise at Second Life Creator; Founder is CEO Again
Earlier this month, the San Francisco company that manages the online community Second Life announced a restructuring that trimmed 30 percent of its workforce. Linden Lab Chief Executive Mark Kingdon, however, said things were going well. Now he is out.
The company said Thursday that Kingdon has stepped down and founder Philip Rosedale–who was succeeded by Kingdon as CEO about two years ago but remained chairman–has returned as interim chief executive. It added that chief financial officer Bob Komin was promoted to chief operating officer.
“This is a big, tough change but one the board of directors and management team deeply believes in,” Rosedale said in a blog post.
Rosedale praised Kingdon for improving the stability of Second Life and building a strong team of new leaders at the company. But he added:
“Our thinking as a team is that my returning to the CEO job now can bring a product and technology focus that will help rapidly improve Second Life. We need to simplify and focus our product priorities–concentrating all our capabilities on making Second Life easier to use and better for the core experiences that it is delivering today. I think that I can be a great help and a strong leader in that process.”
