Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham returns after 12 years out of the games industry

Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham has return to the company after leaving 12 years ago for a career in the financial sector.

As reported by Polygon, he’s been named senior VP at the studio and has been tasked with ensuring new projects get off the ground.

A long history

Adham founded the Hearthstone developer with Frank Pearce and Mike Morhaime in 1991, then called Silicon & Synpase. It later changed its name to Chaos Studios, before becoming Blizzard Entertainment, a name it retains to this day.

Toward the end of his time at the company, Adham took on the role of lead designer on World of Warcraft. After 13 years at the company, he left in January 2004, before the hugely successful MMO was released.

Following his departure he moved into the financial sector, and hasn’t been in games development in the last 12 years.

Despite this, he’ll now be responsible for supporting the development of new titles at Blizzard.

"I’m at the centre of the process by which we start up new titles and incubate new ideas," he said.

"I have Mike and Frank to thank for that, but I skip to work every day."