Reggie Fils-Aime

His parents had immigrated to the United States from Haiti in the 1950s due to conflicting political views of his grandparents; his paternal grandfather was a general when the Haitian military overthrew the democratically elected government, which included his maternal grandfather.

Fils-Aimé's mother worked as a lead sales representative in a fine jewelry store and his father was a machinist.

Fils-Aimé has said that he adopted his optimistic attitude from his mother.

He was raised on Long Island, where he attended Brentwood High School; he described himself as the "lone minority" among his classmates.

Reginald Fils-Aimé (born March 25, 1961) is an American businessman best known for being the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game company Nintendo, from 2006 to 2019.

Prior to his promotion to president and COO, Fils-Aimé was executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Reginald Fils-Aimé was born on March 25, 1961, in The Bronx, New York City.

He was accepted into Cornell University in 1979, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in applied economics and management from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1983.

He was president of the school's Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity chapter, where he was described as being neat and organized.

Fils-Aimé took a job at Procter & Gamble in the company's brand management program.

He also took a position as senior director of national marketing at Pizza Hut, where he launched the Bigfoot Pizza and the Big New Yorker.

Fils-Aimé served as the Head of Marketing for Guinness Imports Co. in the United States and was responsible for all brands.

He also worked as chief marketing officer at Derby Cycle, directing sales and marketing efforts worldwide for eight brands.

Fils-Aimé served as managing director and oversaw Raleigh U.K., Derby's British operations.

He then joined the American Chinese food company Panda Management Co. acting as senior vice-president.

He also joined MTV's VH1 network in 2001 as senior vice-president and left in 2003.

Fils-Aimé was responsible for a 30% increase in ratings for the VH1 network by shifting the channel's focus to appeal to younger viewers.

As part of his role at VH1, Fils-Aimé also laid out and implemented a marketing strategy for The Concert for New York City, which garnered more than $35 million for disaster relief following the September 11 attacks.

Fils-Aimé joined Nintendo in December 2003 as the executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Fils-Aimé had been recruited for the position, but during the interview period, he said that he had asked to see Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, which was considered highly unusual but was granted.

His conversation with Iwata went far longer than planned and it helped to establish the friendly relationship Fils-Aimé had with Iwata for more than a decade which, according to Fils-Aimé, helped with open communications and understanding to help Nintendo improve overall as a business.

Because of this, Fils-Aimé has called Iwata his mentor as well as a "dear friend" throughout his time at Nintendo.

Fils-Aimé was initially responsible for all sales and marketing activities for Nintendo in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

At the time Fils-Aimé was hired in 2003, the video game industry was stagnant in major markets, and Nintendo's competitors Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment were looking to regain interest by building more powerful home consoles.

For Nintendo, it had recently come off re-organization of upper management, including Iwata being named its president only the year prior.

The company was producing the GameCube, but Iwata and other Nintendo executives saw that most titles being produced were sequels with almost no new intellectual property.

Fils-Aimé said that the decision for Nintendo to differ from its competitors and try to bring back fun into video games was made before he had been hired, and part of that was planned through Fils-Aimé's marketing skills and presence.

Fils-Aimé gained celebrity status among gamers following his appearance at Nintendo's E3 2004 press conference in May 2004, and helped to revitalize Nintendo's image as a major contender among the other video game console makers, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Microsoft.

Fils-Aimé had held previous sales and marketing executive roles at Procter & Gamble, Pizza Hut, Guinness, Derby Cycle, Panda Express, and VH1.

Fils-Aimé became a recognized public face for Nintendo at the 2004 E3.

The year prior, Nintendo's press conference was considered a quiet and dry affair compared to the conferences given by Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment; while Iwata and other Japanese executives were present, the only American on stage was George S. Harrison and had remained stoic during the conference.

Nintendo was also losing in the sixth console generation.

The GameCube was struggling against the PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox console, and long-time Nintendo fans were despondent over Nintendo's current state.

Fils-Aimé served to lead off the 2004 conference as his first introduction to the public.

He led off the conference with "My name is Reggie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games."

His presentation was considered aggressive, and at one point directly attacked the approaches that Microsoft and Sony were taking with handling of video game content on their consoles.

On May 25, 2006, Fils-Aimé became the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America after former president, Tatsumi Kimishima, was moved to his new role as chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

Fils-Aimé was the first American to hold this position.

Fils-Aimé retired as president of Nintendo of America on April 15, 2019 after an announcement on February 21, and was succeeded by Doug Bowser.

He subsequently became a Leader in Residence at Cornell University and later named to the board of directors for Brunswick Corporation, GameStop, and Spin Master.