Company: Arkadium, New York, NY
Company Description: Arkadium creates game solutions for consumer brands, ad agencies and media destinations to expand their online presence with multi-platform campaigns. Our products enhance a brand’s reach through interactive applications and custom branded advergames that reach millions of people across all demographics.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Media

Nomination Title: Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Kenny Rosenblatt is relentless when it comes to the success of his casual, social and mobile game development company Arkadium. 2011 marked the company’s tenth anniversary, and even in the tough economy the company is still growing and going strong. Kenny and the rest of his executive team have set a goal to be the “best game developer in the world,” and they are well on their way.

Not only did Kenny celebrate the birthday of the game development studio he founded with his wife Jessica Rovello, the president of Arkadium, but he and his team of more than 120 employees in four offices around the world toasted a birthday to Mahjongg Dimensions. Mahjongg Dimensions is one of Arkadium’s most popular casual games and since launch there have been more than 500 million plays of the game and expansions from online to Facebook to downloadable games and mobile.

With scores of competitors launching new games on new platforms, when deciding to enter the mobile space this year, Kenny and his team chose to move strategically. Instead of stretching the existing staff in a new capacity that wasn’t a core competency, they decided to open a new office with staff dedicated to expanding the company’s popular game titles to the mobile platform, including the iOS and Android, and do it right.

In addition to mobile, in 2011 Kenny and his team took the Mahjongg Dimensions franchise even further with the launch of Mahjongg Dimensions Deluxe: Tiles in Time downloadable game sequel, and Mahjongg Dimensions Blast on Facebook giving players a new level system, enhanced game play and improved graphics and audio from the first Facebook game.

Additionally, at the end of the year Arkadium announced a multi-year, multi-game relationship with Microsoft. The partnership was an evolution of the relationship the two companies had been developing over the previous two years.
Matt Booty, GM of Connected Experiences for Microsoft Studios, was quoted on the partnership, “Arkadium has a ten-year track record of developing entertaining and well-architected casual and social games. Our team is excited to be partnering with a developer that we believe will help us entertain millions of people as we expand our reach to a broader audience.”

With Kenny at the helm, 2011 was an amazing year for Arkadium. The company moved into new markets, developed key partnerships and continues to build upon the company’s library of casual, social and mobile games.

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Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Kenny Rosenblatt is the CEO and Co-Founder of Arkadium. Since the company’s inception in 2001 Kenny has helped to develop game solutions for leading clients and brands such as CBS, Harrah’s, MSN, Mattel, Hearst, and AARP. Kenny is responsible for driving the long term strategy of Arkadium and guiding the vision behind the technology platform that Arkadium’s games are built on. His extensive experience in the games industry, along with his entrepreneurial spirit has helped him always stay at the cutting edge of technology.