Robin Harper to leave Linden Lab
After almost seven years at Linden Lab Robin Harper, the Lab's Vice President of Marketing and Community Development, has given notice of her impending departure from the company.
Harper, who arrived at Linden Lab from game company Maxis, was nominated as one of Edge's 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming in 2006, and in 2007 we considered her the one person Linden Lab and Second Life could least afford to lose. While we still believe that was a correct call at the time, times obviously change.
The Lab has been undergoing significant shake-up at the executive level, particularly in the last six months, as new Lab CEO Mark Kingdon has been completely overhauling management of the company, and given the rate at which Kingdon has been restructuring the executive, this doesn't come as much of a surprise.
Harper had a significant hand in most major decisions for the fledgling company during her time there. Everything from the name of the product to numerous popular and unpopular decisions involving regulation, and spent her time trying to maintain a tricky balance between the company's needs as a business, and advocacy for the users and customers of the virtual environment. As such there is probably no shortage of people willing to either praise her or damn her for the company's performance and decisions to-date.
Harper's last day will be February 15, and she has not yet announced any future plans, other than to take stock and consider her next move.
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