MANAGEMENT | PARTNERS | ADVISORS
GEOFF HEATH
Partner
Geoff Heath has over 30 years of experience in the multimedia business. Geoff, whose illustrious career began in the music industry, has over two decades of software industry expertise, ranging from international software distribution to games development and product marketing. During his time as a music publisher, Geoff guided the UK media company ATV into music publishing by acquiring Northern Songs. Through Northern Songs (which was later sold to Michael Jackson), Geoff worked with a string of celebrated writers, notably former Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Uniquely, he received the Ivor Novello award, the ultimate accolade in the European music industry, the first and only time it was awarded to a music publisher.
Moving from music to the then emerging computer games industry, Heath was instrumental in helping Activision establish a foothold as the UK's first third-party publisher for the Atari 2600. During his tenure with Activision, Geoff served as European Managing Director. In subsequent years, Heath also advised big US companies such as Origin and Maxis (both acquired by Electronic Arts) and Expert (acquired by Activision) as they entered the European marketplace. In 1988, he established Mindscape International and was instrumental in amalgamating the Mindscape Group. In 1994, he was a key member of the team that managed the sale of the Mindscape Group to Pearson for $460 million, setting a new benchmark for a games industry trade sale.
Most recently he was the CEO of NCsoft (Europe); a Korean video games company specializing in MMOG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) including the very successful titles Lineage and City of Heroes.
In July 2006 he received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Abertay University Dundee. In June 2009, he was named Officer of the British Empire in the Queen’s birthday honors list.