The former top manager of Electronic Arts and Kaspersky became CEO of Astrum Entertainment

Tony Watkins, who headed the Russian division of Electronic Arts (EA) for almost 15 years, was appointed head of Astrum Entertainment, a domestic publisher and developer of video games.

According to the company's statement, Watkins will focus his efforts "on actively developing the business by expanding the portfolio of games, investing in various products, and entering into new partnerships both in Russia and abroad."

Since the separation of Astrum Entertainment into a separate company in 2022, it has changed its CEO for the second time. Initially, Sergey Efremov acted in his role, and then, in October 2023, Alexey Izotov, who previously headed the publishing direction at MY.GAMES, became him.

It is unclear what the next change of the head is connected with.

Watkins has been living in Russia since the mid-nineties. He launched brands such as Red Bull and Evian in the country, participated in the regional promotion of Heinz, Phillip Morris, Dirol and Stimorol brands.

He became the head of Electronic Arts Russia in 2005. After leaving the company in October 2019, Watkins held the position of Vice president of business development at Kaspersky for almost three years. He officially left it in June 2022. Since July 2022, he has been listed as Senior Vice president for International Operations at the Emirati ESL FACEIT Group, engaged in the development of gaming communities. Since October 2023, his LinkedIn profile has had the Open to work status.

Curiously, it became known from the press release that the average MAU of Astrum Entertainment projects has not changed since October last year. It still stands at 1 million people, and the total number of registrations in its games is still around 110 million.