Nintendo of America announced two additions to their Bay Area staff today. Denise Kaigler joins the new office as a VP of marketing and corporate affairs and Bill Van Zyll becomes the new director and general manager of Latin affairs. With Wii's and DS's selling like hot cakes this is probably a good time to be working for the big N. Full details after the jump.
Nintendo Appoints Two Sales & Marketing Executives to Bay Area Office
VP and GM Bring Strong Credentials to Keep Nintendo's Momentum Going
REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Nintendo of America announces the
appointment of two sales and marketing executives to work from the company's
new Bay Area office in Redwood City, Calif. Denise Kaigler joins as vice
president of Marketing & Corporate Affairs, while Bill Van Zyll becomes the
new director and general manager of Latin America. Van Zyll's appointment is
effective immediately, while Kaigler starts Feb. 18. Both will report to
Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales &
Marketing.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080114/LAM058-a)
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080114/LAM058-b)
"Denise and Bill bring a wealth of branding and marketing experience to
our team," Dunaway said. "Their expertise will help us keep Nintendo's
momentum going strong throughout 2008 and beyond."
Kaigler will oversee all aspects of corporate affairs, including corporate
communications, public relations, government affairs, investor and analyst
relations, and internal communications for Nintendo of America, and will play
a key role in global coordination. Kaigler comes to Nintendo following a
16-year tenure at Reebok International, where she serves as head of Global
Corporate Communications and Corporate Citizenship. She also serves as head of
Corporate Communications in the United States for the adidas Group, the parent
company of Reebok. Kaigler replaces Perrin Kaplan, who left Nintendo at the
end of December.
Kaigler is an active participant in several professional and nonprofit
organizations, including Bottom Line, an organization committed to helping low
income, first-generation-to-college students get into and graduate from
college, and go far in life. She is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston,
where she majored in journalism. Kaigler serves as a member of the Emerson
College Board of Overseers.
Van Zyll heads Nintendo of America's Latin America department, which is
responsible for the creation, direction and implementation of short- and
long-term sales, marketing, and operational strategies for Latin America. He
comes to Nintendo of America after more than 15 years at the Whirlpool
Corporation, where for the past four years he has served as Director of
Finance for Sales for the company's North American region. Van Zyll also
served in other key international capacities, which included overseeing
Whirlpool's operations in Latin America, and brings his extensive experience
in sales and marketing to Nintendo.
Van Zyll earned a master's degree in business administration with a
specialization in international business from the University of Miami and
bachelor's degrees in finance and accounting from the University of Arizona.
He is fluent in English, Spanish and Dutch, and proficient in Italian.
About Nintendo: The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive
entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets
hardware and software for its Wii(TM), Nintendo DS(TM), Game Boy(R) Advance
and Nintendo GameCube(TM) systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.5
billion video games and more than 430 million hardware units globally, and has
created industry icons like Mario(TM), Donkey Kong(R), Metroid(R), Zelda(TM)
and Pokemon(R). A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in
Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the
Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's
Web site at http://www.nintendo.com.
