Continuing what has been a significant changeover in the leadership of the company, it was announced today that the managing director of PartyGaming, John O’Malia, will step down from his post effective at the end of February.
O’Malia joined PartyGaming after they acquired Gamebookers, where he was the CEO, in August 2006. He agreed to stay with PartyGaming after the Gamebookers faculties were fully integrated into the PartyGaming operations and assisted in developing the marketing of PartyGaming over the last 2 ½ years. O’Malia was moved into his position of Managing Director and joined the Board of Directors of PartyGaming last year, following the appointment of Jim Ryan as PartyGaming’s new Chief Executive Officer.
While O’Malia will be moving on into his own business interests, he reflected with pride on his time with PartyGaming. “My time at PartyGaming has been extraordinary,” he stated during the announcement of his resignation. “We have made enormous strides in repositioning PartyGaming’s portfolio, something that I was determined to achieve before moving on. I am enormously proud of the progress we have made and the fact that many of the PartyGaming’s offerings are now once again recognized as being best in class.”
“Whilst I shall certainly miss the excitement of working for the world’s leading listed online gaming company, I am looking forward to taking on fresh business challenges.”
Taking over the managing director responsibilities will be none other than the CEO of PartyGaming, Jim Ryan. Ryan reflected on O’Malia’s time with PartyGaming by saying, “Over the past two and a half years, John has made a significant contribution to the transformation and leadership of PartyGaming. In particular, his vision and dedication were fundamental to the successful launch of the next generation of our signature PartyPoker.com product in September 2008. John is a natural leader and is keen to fulfill his potential in a more senior management role that will play to his considerable industry and management experience. While we at PartyGaming are saddened by his decision to leave us, we wish him every success for the future.”
The past year has been a period of change for one of the preeminent online gaming organizations. In June of last year, Mitch Garber stepped down as the CEO of PartyGaming over differences in the future vision of the company, at which time Ryan stepped in and mounted a significant three year plan to reestablish the company to the top of the online gaming world. The company was once again rocked in December when co-founder Anurag Dikshit pled guilty to violations of the 1961 Wire Act and was fined $300 million by the United States Department of Justice, with further potential sentencing of up to two years in prison suspended until 2010.
