June 19, 2009 (FinancialWire) — Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) has appointed John Schappert as its chief operating officer. Schappert, who joined the industry in 1991 as a software engineer on several EA titles, left EA in 2007 to become corporate VP of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) interactive entertainment business.

In his new role, Schappert responsible for EA’s worldwide publishing, the company’s online platform group, its interactive unit, central development services and other divisions of the company.

John Pleasants, who has been in the COO role, will be leaving EA.

Schappert has an extensive background in the industry. After working as a game software engineer and project head, Schappert founded Tiburon Entertainment in 1994, the studio behind EA’s Madden NFL, NCAA Football and Tiger Woods games. Tiburon was acquired by EA in 1998.

In 2002, Schappert moved to EA’s Burnaby Studio in British Columbia, and was promoted to SVP and group general manager. He was promoted again to COO for EA’s worldwide studios and, subsequently to EVP with oversight of EA’s online platform and central development services group.

Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the internet.

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