Jason Della Rocca leaves IGDA

Jason Della Rocca announced that he's stepping down as Director of the IGDA.

Whenever high-visibility industry people step down from a long time role, there's a tendency to look at them as irreplaceable, and that the company/organization will suffer for their loss. This is almost always patently false. People get replaced and organizations move on.

This is one of the rare cases where I think it's true. Jason is a force of nature and huge part of what's made the IGDA what it is. He oversaw it's separation from CMP, it's transition to a non-profit organization, and was a big part of it's growth, strong ties to the industry, government and academia, and more. I have no doubt the IGDA will find a way to move on, but man, those are big shoes to fill.

Back at Matrox, Jason was my first employee. He went on to run developer relations there after I left. It was in that role that I think he first got a hint that his strength in connecting and connecting with  people was something that could really take him places. I've often joked that Jason personally knows just about every individual in this industry. That's an exageration but not far from it. Among those many people are many industry recruiters, and I'm sure a few will be reaching out to him soon (though it sounds like he's got some ideas about what he's doing next).

Best of luck Jason. Can't wait to see what's next. I'm sure it will be awesome.