Linden Labs gets New Marketing VP

Linden Lab recently welcomed a new addition to its executive ranks: Kim Salzer, who became our Vice President of Marketing, at the beginning of August. Kim (known as Kim Linden inworld) joins us from Activision Blizzard, where she was Vice President of Global Brand Management for properties like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty 2, among others. Kim brings a deep background in gaming (including experience at Electronic Arts working on massively multiplayer online games and hit sports franchises), and in online learning, and we’re excited to have her as part of the team. As an introduction to Residents, I asked Kim to tell us a bit about herself in her own words:

Q: What’s the one thing you bring from the gaming world that will be most useful to you in your position at Linden Lab?

A: Working in gaming taught me a lot about just how creative and passionate that audience can be, and I think the same is true for the Residents of Second Life. And SL provides so many great tools to enhance and bring out that creativity, I’m really looking forward to helping foster that as we move into the next phase of the platform’s growth. I want to see if we can make the range of what’s possible in Second Life even broader.

Q: What are your goals for your new position as VP Marketing at Linden Lab?

A: What I really want to do here is help the Lab figure out what the “X Factor” is going to be for Second Life. When I was working on games, I always tried to choose a single idea to focus on and bring out, an X Factor that helped people get into the game and helped them discover all the rest of the possibilities there. If I can help bring that kind of focus to Second Life, I’ll be happy about how I’m doing my job.

Q: What excites you most about working on a product like Second Life?

A: I’m excited about the prospect of helping to build a product that really empowers people to express what they’re about, and that can make a real difference in their lives. I think we’ve only just started to see what can be done here, and I can’t wait to see where we and our Residents can take things from here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

That Kim Linden comes from the company that brought us World of Warcraft is interesting, but not necessarily a sign of earth-shaking things to come (with recent events in mind, at least by itself). As Tateru Nino reminds us, Linden Labs in the recent past had a Marketing VP whom had worked with the people who brought us The Sims.

To view the blog post and the following comments, Click Here.