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Riot Games names A. Dylan Jadeja as next CEO to succeed Nicolo Laurent

Laurent will be stepping down as CEO and move into an advisory role later this year.

Nicolo Laurent will be replaced by Dylan Jadeja as the CEO of Riot Games later this year. (Photo: Riot Games)
Nicolo Laurent will be replaced by Dylan Jadeja as the CEO of Riot Games later this year. (Photo: Riot Games)

Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, VALORANT, League of Legends: Wild Rift, TeamFight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra, has announced a major change in their leadership by naming current global president A. Dylan Jadeja as the new CEO of the company.

Dylan will succeed Nicolo Laurent, who will be stepping down from his role later in the year.

The announcement was made on Friday (12 May), with Laurent also posting about the decision on the same day via Twitter and LinkedIn.

“After 14 years at Riot and 6 as CEO, later this year, I’ll check off something that’s been on my quest log for a while: Stepping away from CEO to focus on family, plan a relocation back to France, and play flex queue with my four kids (wishful thinking on that last bit),” Laurent's first tweet said.

The outgoing Riot CEO also said that the company's executive team conducted an exhaustive internal and external search and “couldn’t be prouder to report” that Riot President Dylan Jadeja will be his replacement.

The transition will happen over the course of the next few months, and Laurent mentioned that he “was excited for Riot’s future with Dylan at the helm”.

Many from both within the company and the player communities of League of Legends, VALORANT, TeamFight Tactics, and others sent their gratitude and well wishes to the incumbent CEO.

“You’ve been an amazing leader and CEO,” League of Legends executive producer Jeremy “BrightMoon” Lee said.

Riot Games co-founder and co-creator Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill also said a few encouraging words to Laurent in his reply to the current CEO’s tweet, saying that he and co-founder Brandon Beck had “total confidence that [he] would do a great job when [he] took the reins.”

Laurent will move into an advisor role after stepping down as the company’s CEO.

He first met League of Legends and Riot Games co-founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill in 2007 and soon after became a huge fan of both. He then joined the company in 2009 and became the Vice President of International until 2016.

He was made President of Global publishing in 2017, where he was in the said role for 9 months, before being name the Riot Games CEO in 2017, a position he has held for over 5 years.

Riot Games with Laurent as CEO

During Laurent's tenure as CEO, on top of maintaining and growing League of Legends' player base, Riot expanded its roster of critically acclaimed games, including the popular first-person shooter game VALORANT, and contributed to the development of the critically acclaimed Netflix series Arcane.

Tencent also acquired a majority stake in the company under Laurent's leadership.

During his time as the company’s CEO, Riot was also involved in several sexual harassment lawsuits from current and former employees of the company.

In 2018, a Kotaku expose revealed sexism within the company. Laurent wasn’t named as someone who was involved in the incident, but was accused of sexual harassment in 2021 by his former assistant, which led to Riot losing one of its global sponsors for League of Legends esports. However, he was cleared by a third-party investigation months later.

Riot settled the Gender Discrimination suit for US$100 million in December 2021.

Both Jadeja and Laurent also published a letter, which was included in the announcement. The outgoing CEO mentioned in the letter that, “I can imagine this news may feel sudden, but transparently, it’s a decision that’s been on my mind for a while.”

Laurent also recounted his journey with the company beginning in 2009 when Riot Games was still a “40-person startup with the goal of bringing LoL to players around the world”.

He also admitted that the journey had been tough, “Not the grind, the hours, the stress…I’ve grown a tank build, so I can handle that part,” he emphasised. Rather, he pointed out “personal trade-offs” and the “sacrifices his wife and kids have made for my career.”

Laurent mentioned as well that he and his family “miss France so much and want to move back”.

He also said he had no plans to join another company or start a new one. “I love Riot, and I genuinely believe this is the best place in the world to make games… now more than ever.”

Introducing Dylan Jadeja, Laurent went on to acknowledge the process of selecting the new CEO

The incumbent CEO described Jadeja as someone whose biggest strength was empathy, with “a strong passion for Riot’s culture and DNA.”

Jadeja promises to make Riot the most trusted and authentic gaming company

In 2011, Jadeja joined Riot as the Chief Financial Officer, and by 2014, he had also taken on the role of Chief Operating Officer, making him a key figure in the company's meteoric rise and worldwide expansion.

Three years later, he was named President of Riot and, in 2022, assumed leadership of Riot’s Executive Suite and Enterprise efforts.

In his letter to the Rioters, he said that he “will do [his] best to make [the Rioters] proud” and asked for patience as he learns the ropes and dives deep into the company's strategy.

He also promised to “make Riot, unequivocally, the most trusted and authentic game company in the world, built by players, for players”.

He said he wanted to make Riot “the kind of place where people know that everything they play and experience from Riot will be amazing and that everything we do is focused on making it better to be a player.”

Both Laurent’s and Dylan’s letters were made available to the public through the Riot Games website.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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