Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Announces Academic Scholarship in Tribute to Mark Beaumont

CALABASAS, Calif., March 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced a new academic scholarship in honor of Mark Beaumont, former COO of Capcom® North America and Europe who passed away suddenly on February 23, 2010. The endowment was established by the AIAS Foundation to support students in pursuit of careers in the interactive entertainment business. The AIAS will award four yearly $2,500 scholarships to students attending accredited universities.

The scholarship fund honors Beaumont who was a great leader and visionary in the interactive entertainment business for over twenty years. He had been at Capcom since 2005, serving as both senior vice president and executive vice president before being promoted in April 2008 to the role of COO. Capcom is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, where Beaumont was also on the Board of Directors.

"Never one to seek the spotlight, Mark Beaumont has been a patient and invaluable mentor to me and the hundreds of other people he has touched over the course of nearly three decades in the industry. When you look at all of the games and brands he's touched and people whose respect he has earned, I can think of no one that is more deserving of this honor than Mark," said Christian Svensson, corporate officer/vice president of strategic planning & business development, Capcom Entertainment, and AIAS board member.

Prior to Capcom, Beaumont was executive vice president of publishing at Midway Games for five years, along with stints at Time Warner Interactive for 2 years, where he was also executive vice president of publishing, and five years as a general manager at Activision. Preceding Activision, Beaumont had successful spells at Data East, Mindscape, Sony's Psygnosis and Atari.

Beaumont graduated from University of California at Berkeley in Business Administration and Marketing.

"Mark Beaumont exemplified the qualities that define success within the world of interactive entertainment. The Academy Foundation believes that encouraging young adults to pursue careers within the business of interactive entertainment is the most fitting way to honor Mark and his accomplishments," said Joseph Olin, president, AIAS.

The scholarship committee is comprised of AIAS board members Rich Hilleman, Electronic Arts; Don Daglow, Interactive Entertainment and Mike Capps, Epic Games, along with the University of Southern California's Chris Swain and Carnegie Mellon's (former AIAS board member) Jesse Schell to select scholarship recipients.

For additional information on the Mark Beaumont Scholarship Fund and the application process please visit www.interactive.org.

To make donations to the Mark Beaumont Scholarship Fund, please send checks to the AIAS Foundation/Mark Beaumont Fund 23622 Calabasas Road, Suite 220 Calabasas, CA 91302

About the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences:

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) was founded in 1996 as a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote, advance and recognize common interests and outstanding achievements in the interactive arts and sciences. The Academy conducts its annual awards show, the Interactive Achievement Awards, to promote and acknowledge exceptional accomplishments in the field. To further enhance awareness of the Academy's vision, the organization created the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in 2002, a once yearly conference dedicated to exploring approaches to the creative process and artistic expression as they uniquely apply to the development of interactive entertainment.  With the success of D.I.C.E., the Academy took the exclusive event to Singapore to launch the first ever D.I.C.E. Summit Asia this year.  With more than 20,000 members, including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, THQ, Day One Studios, Epic Games and Insomniac Games, The Academy is the leading advocate of video games worldwide. More information can be found at http://www.interactive.org and http://www.dicesummit.org.

Since its inception, The Academy has created and collaborated on a number of unique programs that promote the industry.  AIAS oversees Into The Pixel, in partnership with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a juried exhibition of art from video games.  In addition, the Academy sponsors several education programs including the Randy Pausch Scholarship, which awards students pursuing their dreams of becoming an interactive entertainment creator, and The Academy Scholar, a program sponsored with The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University (SMU).  The AIAS most recently collaborated with Gamestop and The Guildhall at SMU on the Indie Games Challenge, a competition for professional and non-professional video game developers to create their own video game. More information is available at http://www.interactive.org and http://www.intothepixel.com.

SOURCE Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences