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Mr. Heath has over 30 years of experience in the multimedia business. Mr. Heath, whose illustrious career began in the music industry, brings over two decades of software industry expertise to Red Mile, ranging from international software distribution to games development and product marketing. During his time as a music publisher, as Managing Director Mr. Heath guided the UK media company ATV into music publishing by acquiring Northern Songs. Through Northern Songs (which was later sold to Michael Jackson), Mr. Heath was the publisher for a string of celebrated writers, notably former Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Uniquely, he received the Ivor Novello award; the ultimate accolade in the European music industry, and the first and only time it was awarded to a music publisher.
Moving from music to the then emerging computer games industry, Mr. Heath was instrumental in helping Activision establish a foothold as the UK’s first third-party publisher for the Atari 2600. During his tenure with Activision, Mr. Heath served as European Managing Director. In subsequent years, Heath also advised major US video game companies as they entered the European Marketplace. These companies were Origin and Maxis (creator of Sim City); both acquired by Electronic Arts and Expert Software; acquired by Activision. In 1988, he founded Mindscape International and was instrumental in amalgamating the Mindscape Group. In 1994, he was a key member of the team that managed the sale of the Mindscape Group to Pearson for $460 million, setting a new benchmark for a games industry trade sale.
Mr. Heath is currently Chairman of the Climax Group, the largest independent video games developer in the UK. He is also CEO of NCsoft (Europe); a Korean video games company specializing in MOG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) including the very successful titles Lineage and City of Heroes. | 