Bungie, Expedia, Mattel all see execs leave—not all under friendly circumstances.
Francis Scialabba
It’s gonna be…June, I guess. But here’s what happened in the tech C-suite in May.
Not playing, Bungie CTO departs for PlayStation
Sony PlayStation has poached Bungie CTO Luis Villegas. Villegas posted about the change to LinkedIn on May 15, specifying that he’d be working for the company’s content vertical.
“I feel incredibly lucky because as part of my new role I get to still work closely with my Bungie family,” Villegas said.
Villegas stepped into the CTO role at the Sony subsidiary game studio in December 2020. He’d worked for the company since 2003, starting as a software engineer, and stayed there throughout, save a one-year stint with Electronic Arts from 2008 to 2009.
Barbie world no more as Mattel CTO moves on
Sven Gerjets, former EVP and CTO at Mattel, left the company in May after seven years. In a LinkedIn post, Gerjets said he would be “cheering them on from the sidelines and can't wait to see the amazing things they continue to deliver.”
The move caps a 28-year-career in the tech C-suite, starting in 1996 at AT&T, where he began as director of business and logical security and worked his way up to director of IT Operations. From there, Gerjets helped start a healthcare tech company, Eva Health, and worked for Symantec; he joined DirecTV in 2007 as SVP of IT until 2014. Prior to joining Mattel in 2017, Gerjets was CIO at Time Warner Cable.
Expedia CTO out over internal issues
Rathi Murphy, Expedia CTO, was let go May 17 for “a violation of company policy,” the company said. The abrupt firing came less than a week after the firm’s Explore 24 event in Las Vegas in mid-May.
Murphy pushed back in a statement to GeekWire. “Throughout my career, I’ve conducted myself with a commitment to the highest level of integrity,” Murphy said. “I am proud of my work at Expedia and have endeavored at all times to serve the best interests of the company. I look forward to sharing my story at the appropriate time and setting the record straight.”
Whatever happened, it wasn’t confined to Murphy. Sreenivas Rachamadugu, SVP of core services product and engineering, was also let go for the same reason.
Murphy’s departure comes on the heels of a successful career with C-suite stints at American Express, Gap, and Verizon.
