Endemol Taps Ward for Virtual Me

HILVERSUM, June 12: Endemol International has appointed Andy Ward to head up its online offering, Virtual Me—a venture with video game giant Electronic Arts—as the director of business development.

In addition to his current responsibilities as the director of special projects at Initial, a subsidiary of Endemol U.K., Ward had been leading the development of the Virtual Me project for several months. He will report directly to Mike Morley, Endemol International’s senior executive director of creative and commercial affairs.

As the head of events, and then the director of special projects at Initial, Ward oversaw the development of new formats and events including The U.K. Music Hall of Fame, the Hans Christian Andersen special Once Upon A Time, as well as The Match and 46664, Nelson Mandela’s huge South African AIDS awareness event.

Virtual Me resulted from Endemol’s recent partnership with games specialist Electronic Arts (EA). Bridging the divide between traditional TV and video games, Virtual Me is a new online offering that combines avatar creation technology from EA with popular TV formats from Endemol to give consumers a breakthrough way to meet, compete and socialize in online digital worlds. Virtual Me will debut in Endemol’s top-rated Big Brother.