Kelly Sumner (born 29 April 1961), is a director o
ArBa Developments
chairman o
Reactional Music
and chairman o
SonicData
Sumner has run two

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

listed companies. He has 40 years experience in hardware and software, starting as a trainee electronics engineer at

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

in 1979. He progressed up the corporate ladder becoming managing director of

in the UK. From hardware he moved into entertainment software, joining US based

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

and

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

publisher

Gametek GameTek was an American video game publisher based in North Miami Beach, Florida known for publishing video game adaptations of game shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s. GameTek was a trade name for IJE, the owner of electronic publishing rig ...

as European MD before becoming CEO. Sumner merged

into the fledgling publisher Take Two shortly thereafter. As

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

he took the company to annual sales of $1 billion, investing in the creation of amongst others,

Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...

, launching products such as

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...

and delivering a four-fold increase in the share price. After Take Two, Sumner became CEO of

RedOctane RedOctane, Inc. was an American electronic entertainment company best known for producing the ''Guitar Hero'' series, beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006. In February 2010, Activision clos ...

fronting the commercial development of

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...

, the video game that went on to become a $1 billion franchise. He sold

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

in 2006 for $160 million. More recently Sumner has been investing in early stage tech companies. During this period he has been chairman of Intent Media, which was sold to Newbay Capital; and

Mediatonic Mediatonic Limited is a British video game developer based in London. The company was founded in September 2005 by Brunel University students Dave Bailey and Paul Croft, releasing their first game, ''Snowman Salvage'' in December that year. Ini ...

(

Fall Guys ''Fall Guys'' (formerly known as ''Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout'') is a free-to-play platform battle royale game developed by Mediatonic. The game involves up to 60 players who control jellybean-like creatures and compete against each other ...

) which was sold to Synova Capital, and a board director of the cloud CRM company, TPoint, which was sold to New York-based private equity company Aquiline Capital Partners. He is currently a director of ArBa Developments, chairman of Reactional Music, and chairman of the intelligent content tech start-up, Sonic Data Limited. SonicData's mission is to enable, understand and track all the world's music and audio content from creation to consumption. Its patented SonicKey™ enables all audio in the world to be identifiable, referenceable and trackable. SonicKey can be easily integrated into both software and hardware. It has multiple commercial applications in music, social media, advertising, TV, streaming platforms, games, voice and news across all platforms, places, media and devices''.'' Sumner is also a former vice president of

Chelsea Football Club Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. The ...

. He resides in

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

, Surrey with his wife, Kirsteen. Appeared as a contestant on the videogame show GamesMaster (Series 2 Episode 12). Winning the Golden Joystick by completing his challenge on The Humans on the Amiga.

References

External links

*http://ir.take2games.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=86428&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=358952&highlight= 22 November 2002 *Take-Two Veteran Leads RedOctan

3 March 2006 *https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/could-this-technology-built-by-a-grammy-winning-producer-blow-up-musics-black-box-once-and-for-all/ 13 July 2021 *https://www.recordoftheday.com/on-the-move/news-press/sonickey-enables-all-music-in-the-world-to-be-identifiable-referenceable-and-trackable-with-100-accuracy 14 July 2021 *https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/ones-to-watch-2021/sonicdata-limited 14 September 2021 *https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/site-content/ones-to-watch-2021-celebrates-growth-and-export-minded-createch-businesses 9 September 2021 *https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/23360/pdf/ 20 January 2021 *https://www.aim.org.uk/#/news/aim-partners-with-sonicdata-to-offer-members-free-digital-watermark-monitoring-technology 2 September 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sumner, Kelly 1961 births Living people British businesspeople