WotC WotC President Cynthia Williams Resigns

Cynthia Williams, who has been president of Wizards of the Coast for the last two years, will be leaving the company at the end of the month, according to an SEC filing dated April 15th. Hasbro is already looking for somebody to step into the role.

Williams worked for Microsoft on the Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team before joining WotC two years ago, stepping into the role that then-president Chris Cocks vacated when he was promoted to CEO of Hasbro in February 2022.

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On April 15, 2024, Cynthia Williams, President of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming, informed the Company of her resignation from the Company effective April 26, 2024. The Company is conducting a process to identify her successor, looking at both internal and external candidates.

According to Rascal News, WotC responded with a comment: "We’re excited for Cynthia to take the next step in her career and grateful for the contributions she has made in her more than two years at Wizards and Hasbro. We wish her the absolute best in her next endeavor. We have started the search for our next President of Wizards of the Coast and hope to have a successor in place soon."

 

[Remathilis]

I'm still gonna shoot my shot and apply.

Maybe seeing me as a real go-getter will give me a leg up. Can I put any of you guys down as a reference?

"Meech is a real ****, but a fair dungeon master. He's got Charisma and hit points to lend."

 

[MGibster]

That may be the case for you or me, but once you get high enough up the payscale places tend to replace "getting fired" with "strongly encouraged to resign and offered a generous severance package to get the hell out".

This is very often the case. I've certainly never been involved in the termination of a CEO, but there have been times we've given managers the option to resign or be fired and most choose to resign. I'm not even going to hazard a guess as to why Williams is leaving, but if WotC doesn't have a replacement in mind it tells me this probably wasn't expected.

 

[Charlaquin]

It certainly seems abrupt. Two weeks notice for that high a position with no replacement in mind seems unusual to me if it's entirely her choice and not the result of some kind of pressure.

Maybe. Not having a replacement lined up strikes me as more unusual than the two-week timeframe. But, granting that this might indicate some source of pressure, we have no indication that it’s internal pressure. She could need to move suddenly due to some family emergency. She could have a better job opportunity with a narrow window. Or maybe it is internal and she is either being prompted to leave or just has come to hate the job. My point is, we really can’t discern anything about what might be going on at WotC or Hazbro with what little information we have here.

 

[Dire Bare]

Hopefully the new boss, whomever they are, will actually allow the older edition SRDs to go into Creative Commons.

Unless you've heard something I haven't . . .

We don't know if the older editions being released into Creative Commons is a thing somebody at WotC is purposefully killing or delaying.

The more likely scenario is that it is just a low priority. And they just had a round of layoffs, and are prepping for an important book release with the new 2024 rules.

Doing so is a good PR move, but . . . it's not going to have a huge impact on WotC's bottom line, so . . . low priority.

 

[LordEntrails]

they are starting the search for a successor now... there is no way they had advance notice

LOL, yea... One would think people behave in a rational manner to an outside observer. But that is often not hte case.

EDIT: Also "She informed Hasbro of her plans on April 15, and the resignation will be effective on April 26, an 11-day notice. " should settle this

Oh, well yea, that's important to know

At that level of position typically the most pressing concern is that investors don’t get spooked. And while the bosses probably knew before the announcement - an extremely short announcement doesn’t send a great public message to investors, which is why under normal circumstances you likely wouldn’t see that done.

Yep. Stock prices, but their are always exceptions. Sometimes more often than not

As for my suggestion, it was more to point out that we really don't know. There is A LOT going on that we are not now or even will be privy to. To pretend we know the cause is silly. But to speculate on the possibilities, that's entertainment!

 

[Charlaquin]

Good riddance. I hope Chris Cocks follows her out the door in short order.

I think the likelihood that whoever replaces her will be any better is probably low. But, I’m a pessimist about such things, so

 

[overgeeked]

It was clearly de-prioritized by management, as it's been delayed into oblivion despite being "done in a day or two"-tier easy (for 3 & 3.5e SRDs, anyway).

One could argue the layoffs by management prevented it by way of loss of manpower, but I think that would only be an excuse for it and not a reason.

There are layers and layers of management between the people doing the work and the CEO. Anyone in that maze of cubicles and corner offices could have said no. Laying it specifically and personally at the feet of the CEO seems like a weird move.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Aw, now we'll never get Buck Rogers 5e.

 

[Dausuul]

You don't get 2 weeks notice if you're fired.

Sure, if you're actually literally fired. We know that didn't happen; she resigned. What we don't know is whether her resignation was made under pressure from above -- if she was essentially told, "We'll let you quit if you make it snappy. Otherwise we'll fire you. Your choice."

Locking your accounts and having security walk you out the same day is for working stiffs, not executives.

On the other hand, she may have been the one who initiated it. We're unlikely to find out for sure, but that won't stop us speculating.

 

[Manbearcat]

You don't get 2 weeks notice if you're fired. As far as the new edition, it's pretty much done at this point. The D&D books aren't where the real money is anyway.

Well, I have a handful of anecdotes (not me, but I'm involved or adjacent) of the "yeah, you're done here" ("firings") variety with Managing Director and above. The most recent anecdote involves the 2.5 year stay of the Managing Director of my partner's flavor and enzyme company (which was bought by a German parent company who hired this MD > became publicly traded at that point > then was sold to an affiliate Welsh company).

This MD couldn't have been more worthless. 2.5 years earning a gang of money to basically do nothing while my partner effectively ran every aspect of the business from office management to regulatory/audit to logistics/infrastructure to States-side HR to customer support to sales/branding to actual productions/receiving/warehouse management (she is supposed to just be the chemist and perform R&D and related...lawls).

When the axe came down for this deadbeat MD from the parent company that now owns them, there were extended negotiations of severance and another 4 months of do-absolutely-nothing and make a gang-of-cash doing nothing for this MD while everyone at the States-side facility endures the total leadership vacuum (official leadership vacuum that is...again, my partner has basically been "the leader" for the last many years...but now she gets to deal with things while the slow path forward is being carved out)...and then you'll..."retire."

So, in my experience, "the hook" doesn't come with the speed and the branding of "YOU LOSE, GOOD DAY SIR" at Managing Director and above. But I'm just one person and I don't have piles of data to support that.