Rod Cousens
Senior Advisor
Rod Cousens, CBE, is a leading games industry executive and the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jagex Games Studio. He was also Co-CEO of Huuuge Games, a public company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
With a highly distinguished career spanning some 35 years in the interactive entertainment industry, Rod has been honored with many industry awards for both his professional and fundraising achievements. In 2009, Rod received a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the games industry.
Jagex is home to the iconic online gaming franchise, RuneScape. Celebrating its 15 Year anniversary in 2016, RuneScape has welcomed over 250 million players to its world, and millions more avidly watch the game through social channels.
Prior to Jagex, Rod was CEO of Codemasters and led the company through its most successful period in its 30-year history. Under Rod, Codemasters became the UK’s largest video game company and enjoyed a global reputation for developing and publishing best-in-class racing games. Rod led Codemasters’ relationship with Formula One Management, which resulted in the most successful F1 branded games ever.
Prior to Codemasters, Rod was COO and latterly CEO of international publisher Acclaim Entertainment, where he grew the international business to an operation with over $100m of annual revenues. Rod began his career in 1981 with the founding of games publisher Quicksilva. He went on to become UK Managing Director and later President International of Activision, Inc., now one of the largest publishers in the global video games industry.
