Angry Birds Creator Hires Ex-Marvel Studios Chief

ESPOO: David Maisel, the former chairman of Marvel Studios, has been tapped as a special advisor to Rovio, the company behind the megahit Angry Birds franchise, tasked with building the Finnish company’s entertainment strategy.

Maisel, whose tenure at Marvel saw the comic-book giant entering into the production and distribution of its own films, including Iron Man, will help develop Rovio’s entertainment strategy and will executive produce any future Angry Birds films. As part of its media strategy, Rovio recently announced the acquisition of Finnish animation studio Kombo.

“David was instrumental in rebooting Marvel Studios and turning it into a blockbuster-producing powerhouse,” said Mikael Hed, the CEO of Rovio. “We welcome his experience and vision as we continue broadening our entertainment production scope at Rovio.”

Maisel, who worked at CAA, Disney and WME, among others, before joining Marvel, noted, “I’m very honored and excited to join Rovio, and my goal is to help unleash its great potential. Rovio has already had amazing success and established a great brand with Angry Birds. The business model, intellectual properties, and the franchise potential of Angry Birds give Rovio the most exciting prospects I have seen in the entertainment business since Marvel in 2003.”

Since its December 2009 debut, Angry Birds games have racked up more than 250 million combined downloads across all platforms. This year, Rovio received a $42 million investment from venture-capital firms Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures, which will be put toward international expansion and broad scale entertainment franchise development beyond mobile games.