Career
The product launch follows a successful crowdfunding campaign, and is the first product of its kind to automatically back up mobile phone data as the device is being charged. At the same time Kelly is holding the position of chairman at two interactive games developers, Quick Feet and Mediatonic and director of Communications Resource Management software provider, Tpoint solutions. Before setting up MEEM, Kelly was Chief Executive Officer of RedOctane, the games publisher of the world famous ‘Guitar Hero’.
Within two years of joining RedOctane, he oversaw the development of one of the biggest games of the decade before ultimately selling the company in 2006 for $155m.
Before this, he was on the board of Intent Media, publisher of Music Week, Virginia Commonwealth University and Development magazines, until it was sold to Newbay in 2012. Prior to those roles, Kelly was Chief Executive Officer at United States games publisher Gametek Incorporated, initially joining as Doctor of Medicine of international operations before becoming Chief Executive Officer. Following the partial sale of the company to Take-Two Interactive, he ran the international operations for the publisher of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ before being promoted to Chief Executive Officer. He left Take-Two after helping the company to increase its revenue from virtually nothing to almost $1billion and as Chief Executive Officer, he saw a quadrupling in the company’s share price.
Kelly began his career at Commodore United Kingdom, the United Kingdom subsidiary of Commodore International, joining as a trainee electronics engineer after leaving home at 16. Over 12 years he worked his way up to becoming Doctor of Medicine via various positions in sales and marketing.
I remember having a phone meeting and they said:
‘We’ve got this idea for a guitar product.’ And my heart sank.
I had been involved with guitar products in the past
and they were all dead wood. - Kelly Sumner, Former Red Octane Chief Executive Officer.