Lovefilm CEO Simon Calver Steps Down

written by: Richard Kastelein

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Published on Wednesday, 08 February 2012 08:23

Simon Calver, CEO of Lovefilm has stepped down according to a recent blog post at the Lovefilm site:

After nearly seven amazing years as head of LOVEFiLM, I have decided the time is right to hand over the baton to the next leader. Growing this company has been a fantastic experience and I have had the pleasure of working with a truly talented team, real innovators who introduced a brand new way for millions of movie lovers to enjoy films.  They provided our customers a vast selection of over 70,000 DVDs and Video Games, and, more recently, led the way in streaming great titles through PCs, TVs, Blu-ray players and games consoles. 

He went on to describe some of the highs and lows of his journey - such as losing most of their DVD stock in a distribution centre fire,  important mergers uniting a number of  teams, and embarking on their first national TV campaign which paid off greatly. 

Every twist was interesting and I learnt a great deal along the way.  In 2008, we forged a relationship with Amazon, which was to prove the ultimate home, and the best home, for the future of LOVEFiLM. They have been true to their word and continue to invest even more on behalf of customers.  We have now over 2 million members across Europe and are innovating in new services on the PC, PS3, Xbox and iPad, to name but a few.

Jim Buckle, who has been part of the leadership team from the early days in 2006,  will be taking over the reins as CEO.