EA promotes Laura Miele to chief operating officer

Electronic Arts promoted studios chief Laura Miele to chief operating officer. She replaces Blake Jorgensen, who will step down from his roles of chief financial officer and COO and leave the company by next summer.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a blog post that this is the time for EA to “push ourselves to continue innovating, to evolve, and drive transformation for our players.”

Miele was previously head of EA Studios, and she brought “strong strategic and operational discipline” to that job of running dozens of studios and thousands of game developers.

In her new role, she will serve as the No. 2 executive at EA and will be one of the highest-ranking women in the game industry. Miele is relatively rare in having filled responsibilities that require both creative leadership and business operations experience.

Marketing chief Chris Bruzzo will become EA’s chief experience officer, leading efforts to build social ecosystems that “forge stronger connections and create amazing player experiences in and around our games.”

After nearly a decade at EA, Jorgensen has decided to leave EA by next summer. EA is beginning a search for a new chief financial officer, who will work closely with Jorgensen in the transition.

Mala Singh will continue as chief people officer, Ken Moss will continue as chief technology officer, and Jake Schatz will continue as chief legal officer. I think EA mentioned that because it doesn’t want people to worry there aren’t enough leaders with Jorgensen stepping down. (I jest, of course.)

EA is not naming a replacement for Miele at the moment. Wilson said in his post that studio group general managers (who have reported to Miele as studios chief) are now joining the executive leadership team of the company, reporting to Miele.