Just a few weeks ago, Ron Doornink was in charge of a packaged snack-food company. Now he’s running L.A.’s biggest maker of video games.
Sound like a strange transition? Not to Doornink, the new president and chief executive of Activision Inc., who says the skills it takes to run one company are pretty much transferable to another, even in wildly different industries.
“Activision is incredibly exciting to me,” Doornink said. “I can take my background, the skills that I have acquired from working at companies like ConAgra and Procter & Gamble, and use them with a high-growth company like Activision.”
Revenues at Activision, which makes games for personal computers and TV play consoles, have risen in the last four years from $40 million to $400 million.
Doornink was first approached by a headhunter about the position, and was impressed by the company after meeting Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick and President and Chief Operating Officer Brian Kelly.
Kelly is being elevated to co-chairman, along with Kotick, while Doornink takes over day-to-day management. “When you get to this level of sales, you need to change the infrastructure of a company that will allow it to continue to go at that kind of rate,” Doornink said.
Doornink came to the United States from the Netherlands at age 24 to attend business school at Columbia University. Upon graduating, he worked for Madison Avenue’s Compton Advertising, which at that time represented Procter & Gamble. He joined P & G; in 1982, and rose through the ranks in various marketing positions until becoming managing director of a paper division. In 1995, he left to become president of ConAgra Snack Food Co., which owns such brands as Swiss Miss, Orville Redenbacher and SnackPack.
Doornink has ambitious plans for Activision, which he believes can grow to a company with more than $1 billion in revenues under his direction.
“I really enjoy computers and I love to play computer games, so do my kids,” he said. “When you add that to how much I really enjoy running a business, the combination is really sweet.”
Karen Teitelman
