Roger F. A. Arias II
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCT ACQUISITIONS EXECUTIVE
Licensing & Acquisitions * Contract Negotiations * Corporate Liaison * Creative & Business Development * Production (Concept to Release) * Management * Speaker / Presenter
Product Acquisitions & Licensing Executive with over sixteen years experience in the software and games industry. Identified, licensed, designed or produced over 50 successful properties that aggregately generated over $350 million in revenues, including many hugely profitable franchises such as Dragonball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, IMCA Dirt Track Racing, BeachHead, John Deere American Farmer and many more.
A product visionary and proven leader adept at recognizing opportunity early, determining product employment strategy and maximizing profit potential.
Eighteen years of service as a United States Army Officer, and Aviator. As a Combat Veteran, Served as Platoon Leader, managing over 40 pilots, officers, and staff in peacetime as well as war. Achieved rank of Major while serving in the Arizona & Minnesota Army National Guard.
PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
Private Interactive Entertainment Industry Consultant 2008 - Present
Review strengths / weaknesses and goals of company under advisement. Define and help refine focus and objectives. Provide product vision / assessment / planning, and give advice on ways to best maximize product potential & identify alternate revenue streams. Facilitate key introductions between parties, and assist in presentation preparation.
- Successfully established direct-to-carrier (Verizon Wireless) relationship for leading licensee/ licensor, home video/DVD distributor, brand manager of Japanese animation, and children's entertainment properties. Refined presentation, determined appropriate POC's, initiated contact, prepared submission materials, briefed representative and coordinated visit to Verizon Wireless offices.
- Introduced an established developer, specializing in console and now mobile development, directly to a major wireless carrier, bypassing Aggregators and typical wireless game submission protocol. Helped refine clients new mobile web site prior to introduction to portray a robust mobile capability and strong first impression.
- Reviewed and refined prospectus for multi-faceted information technologies & interactive electronic entertainment company with clients such as Electronic Arts, Crytek, Expresso Fitness, and SNK Playmore. Facilitated connections and potential new clients.
Atari, New York, NY 2006 - 2008
Director of Business Development
Revive WizardWorks brand. Develop mission statement and provide business and product focus. Implement mechanisms to streamline acquisition, evaluation and green light process. Create publishing plan. Research, identify and / or design opportunities for Atari and WizardWorks branded titles. Identify and evaluate development partners and negotiate Agreements.
Destineer Studios, Plymouth, MN 2003 - 2006
Director, Licensing & Acquisitions
Brought over from Atari by former Atari Senior Vice President, Paul Rinde (CEO Destineer) as key startup member for publishing. Report directly to CEO with responsibility for product licensing & acquisitions, contract negotiation, production, and military/government liaison & speaker.
- Produced John Deere American Farmer the highest revenue generating product within Destineer portfolio (200,000+) units sold. Additionally handled I.P. relationship with John Deere, negotiated developer agreement, contributed considerable input to design, wrote sell sheet and box copy and performed radio interviews.
- Signed Red Orchestra (Tripwire) the highly sought after grand prize winner of $1,000,000 NVIDIA Make Something Unreal mod-making contest. Courted, negotiated agreement and currently producing. Coordinating with Valve (Steam) for seamless patching and game experience. Arranging agreements for hosting master, and client servers. Generating packaging and sell sheet text.
- Determined and implimented solution to salvage failing military simulation project. Performed due diligence on development team under government contract to determine reason and extent of failure to perform. Assembled and directed widely dispersed replacement team (Australia, England, Ireland, California, and Texas). Restarted the project with less than 1/3rd of the original allocated time and budget.
- Liaison to lettered agencies of government (CIA, FBI, NGA, Secret Service), during initial planning meetings to capture disparate needs of participating agencies for simulation training software. Co-wrote kick-off meeting summary of requirements.
- Speaker / Presenter: Recent engagements - Serious Games Summit Washington, D.C. 2005, "How Serious Games are Helping the Commercial Industry". Austin Game Conference 2004, "Military Applications for Online Gaming". Games Synergy Summit 2005, "Department of Defense & Gaming Joint Development", "Doing Business Across Disciplines". Inter-service/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference (IITSEC) (2005) Panel member. SYSCOM (Pentagon) 2005, "New display launched at Pentagon". Office of Naval Research (2005), "Joint Terminal Attack Controller" & "Anti-Terrorism" Tactical Decision Making Simulations.
Atari (Infogrames), Plymouth, MN 1999 - 2003
Director, Artist & Repertoire (2001 - 2003)
Senior Manager, Product Acquisitions (1999 - 2001)
Head of product acquisitions and licensing for Atari's most profitable division. Identified winning intellectual properties, contract negotiation, created original ideas, provided strategic product planning, assessed viability of unsolicited product submission. Worked effectively with developers to flesh out and improve game ideas, flow and design.
- Obtained Dragonball Z Franchise for Atari. Now the most profitable property in Atari's history. Identified Dragonball Z I.P. on the upswing and diligently pursued FUNimation over an eight month period to obtain the license. Developed and nurtured strong relationship with FUNimation CEO and prepared a convincing strategy for his property that, in his words, "no other publisher could provide". Identified a development team, subject to his review, which demonstrated to his satisfaction an unsurpassed understanding of the property. Coordinated visit and responsible for preparing greeting/presentation to master licensor (Bandai / Shuesha) at Atari's New York headquarters, including attendance of highest levels of Atari management.
- Fleshed out early concept for highly profitable Dirt Track Racing series. Selected and negotiated very favorable three product deal with Ratbag, after overcoming developer's extreme dissatisfaction with earlier experience with Atari.
- Revised classic Beachhead license, which became a top selling Atari product, and precipitated a profitable series of arcade like shooters. Performed name search and obtained expired brand, hired development team, and oversaw design. Beachhead generated additional revenue as video arcade bestseller.
- Recognized the difference between "well known" (Mickey Mouse) and "popular" (Dragonball Z), as well as discerning games of personal interest versus what would sell, thus rejecting many easy pickup I.P. and titles that ultimately became money losers for other publishers.
GT Interactive, Scottsdale, AZ 1996 - 1999
Senior Producer & Product Acquisitions Manager (1997 - 1999)
Senior Producer (1996 - 1997)
- Found, signed, designed, or produced over twenty successful titles (many in combination) with popular brands such as The New York Times' Crossword Puzzles, Marvels X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse and Golden Tee Golf (PSX).
- Sold Product Bundles of older titles into Dillard's Inc. department store chain, resulting in over 80% sell through of product with no returns. Was told it could not be done so prepared presentation, flew to Little Rock, AR, and presented to Corporate buyers. Sales were so strong that buyers requested ongoing relationship for seasonal and holiday sales.
FormGen, Scottsdale, AZ 1994 - 1996
Information available upon request
Contact Plus 1990 - 1994
Information available upon request
United States Army National Guard 1996 - 2004
Information available upon request
United States Army IRR 1990 - 1996
United States Army (active duty) 1986 - 1990
Information available upon request
Research (Personal Interest)
Extensively researched existing Online & Online MMOG Market and potential crossover opportunities to address mass market audience. Research includes identifying multiple revenue streams, integration with mobile devices, product recommendations, addressing bandwidth issues, ongoing support costs, cross marketing opportunities, compelling reasons for customers to pay, minimizing development costs, engine technologies, etc. (Presentation Available)
EDUCATION
Diploma (Human Relations & Public Speaking),
Dale Carnegie Institute, Albuquerque, NM (1992)
BS, Business Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (1986)
Military Education and Awards available upon request