Photonic names former Microsoft Xbox head Don Mattrick CEO

Vancouver-based Photonic has swapped CEOs as the company prepares to commercialize its quantum computing technology.

The British Columbia quantum company announced last Friday that CEO Paul Terry has transitioned to chief product officer (CPO) after six and a half years at the helm. Going forward, Terry will lead Photonic’s product strategy and oversee the development of the firm’s commercial offering.

The executive shuffle comes two months after Photonic secured $180 million CAD in the first close of its investment round.

Photonic has named Don Mattrick, a pioneering Canadian video game entrepreneur and seasoned executive, as Terry’s replacement. Mattrick, who is one of Photonic’s first investors, has been tasked with helping Photonic scale its commercial operations.

The executive shuffle comes two months after Photonic secured $180 million CAD in the first close of its latest investment round, as it looks to scale up its networked quantum computing tech and begin serving enterprise clients.

Mattrick played a formative role in building up Canada and BC’s gaming industry. He co-founded and led Burnaby, BC-based independent video game developer Distinctive Software. Distinctive was later sold to American gaming firm Electronic Arts (EA), and became what is now known as EA Vancouver.

Since then, Mattrick has served as president of worldwide studios at EA and president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business. At Microsoft, Mattrick helped grow the US tech giant’s Xbox division and develop Kinect. He left in 2013 to take the top job at American gaming firm Zynga shortly after the widely criticized launch of the Xbox One. He joined Photonic’s board of directors as vice-chair last month, alongside three others.

In February, British computing entrepreneur Alex van Someren was also appointed executive chair of Photonic’s board, alongside new Photonic investor-linked directors Nathan Medlock (of Planet First Partners) and Ashton Scordo (of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation).

As Terry previously told BetaKit, Photonic is “commercializing a new branch of physics,” by using a property of quantum physics called entanglement to network quantum computers together. Entanglement is when two particles become linked together, even when they’re far apart, and Photonic is harnessing it to perform increasingly powerful computations, and sell that capability to corporations and, eventually, governments.

Photonic is currently participating in Canada’s new Quantum Champions Program, modelled after the US DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (Photonic has also advanced to the second phase of the latter program). Both initiatives aim to support companies in the quest to develop a functional, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Feature image courtesy Photonic.