Former Electronic Arts’ VP of Profitable Creativity and the co-founder of EA University, Andy energizes executives, managers, and the next generation of EA leaders to create their futures and transform how they do business. Andy helps drive innovation in product decisions and consults on large-scale change in EA’s business models and organization. He guides leadership development for high potentials and oversees programs to enhance the business and digital literacy of EA’s workforce.
 
In the face of radical industry disruption, Andy believes in setting aggressive goals. He has led more than 15 global, interdisciplinary EA Strategic Action Teams in tackling these “impossible” challenges. These teams develop and implement innovations that radically increase efficiency, profitability and organizational effectiveness. They have been the honored to receive several national awards recognizing their business impact and innovative approach to change.
 
Andy also embeds into some of the most troubled spots within EA to facilitate improvement. In these roles, he catalyzed comprehensive changes in management practices and organizational restructuring. Over one three-year period he collaborated on a turnaround that saw indices of on-time delivery, quality, and profitability move from the lowest in the company into the upper quartile.
 
Andy finds that developing key change agents is essential for ensuring sustainable organizational change. For the past 14 years, he has hosted EA’s portfolio of Leader Xcelerator experiences for high-potential leaders. The Xcelerators fast-forward EA’s promising leaders through intensive yearlong programs described by participants as “changing my leadership life.” The Xcelerator programs have been recognized with the Optimas Award for most innovative program and the Corporate University’s Best in Class award for quantified business impact.
 
To increase the business acumen of teams and individuals throughout EA, Andy leads the Financial Intelligence series. More than 1,000 people across the company have taken part in the series, enjoying the visual and interactive learning experience. The series includes “Profitable Creativity,” a unique, accessible, games-based experience that increases business and digital literacy for front line game developers.
 
Across all of these transformations, partnerships with EA’s top leaders have been essential. Andy has built strong relationships with EA’s current leaders working with them when they were in the Xcelerators, then as an exec transitions coach, and then hosting their change initiatives as they became top leaders of the company. For the past five years, Andy and his colleagues have hosted annual sessions for senior executives to charter the future of EA and to implement those changes through the vice presidents’ annual leadership conferences.
 
Prior to joining Electronic Arts, Andy was the Managing Director of RHR International’s San Francisco Bay Area office and served at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Andy is the author of the book Big Change at Best Buy: Working Through Hypergrowth to Sustained Excellence, which describes his participation during the explosive growth years of Best Buy Stores.
 
Andy is a member of the President’s Innovation Advisory Board of Humana, one of the largest healthcare companies in the US. He is also a board member to the Rod McLellan Company, a family-held gardening products company whose customers include Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowes. For the past 11 years, Andy has served as post-chair and board member of the California Strategic Human Resources Partnership, bringing together senior HR leaders in Silicon Valley.
 
When he’s not focusing on the development of tomorrow’s leaders, Andy is thinking about the day after tomorrow’s leaders as a member of the board of the Bay Area Leadership Foundation, which serves high-risk high school and college students. He is also active with Biz World, providing business literacy experiences to middle school students. Andy enjoys combining strategy with teamwork on the field, playing competitive soccer with a Bay Area “seniors” team. He and his wife live on the San Francisco Peninsula, where they enjoy frequent visits from their two grown children.