Reggie Fils-Aimé

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

Fils-Aimé served as the Head of Marketing for Guinness Imports Co. in the United States and was responsible for all brands. Fils-Aimé served as managing director and oversaw Raleigh U.K., Derby's British operations. 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. 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. His theatrical antics, flying in the face of Nintendo's long-standing conservative image, gained a cult following soon after, with many gamers calling him the "Regginator", a play on the character of the Terminator. He had not only considered the constantly-changing challenges of marketing to youth, but as well as continuing to address the older video game players, who were still a key market for Nintendo. He further believed that addressing all demographics would be like a rising tide for the industry with Nintendo positioned to capture that the best.

On July 11, 2007, while introducing the Wii Balance Board, Fils-Aimé walked up onto the stage and stated "My body is ready." This quotation would eventually become a meme and Fils-Aimé acknowledged the phrase several times, including at the E3 2012 conference, his appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and his resignation announcement video. When Iwata implemented their Nintendo Direct online press conferences, Fils-Aimé would frequently participate in these alongside Iwata, including a mock Mii-avatar battle, which similarly became the subject of several memes. In other public press presentations for Nintendo, Fils-Aimé has been involved with skits with production support from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, Mega64, and The Jim Henson Company.

On November 5, 2007, at the encouragement of marketing professor Ed McLaughlin in the department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, Fils-Aimé gave a guest lecture on Nintendo's marketing strategy targeted at gamers across a spectrum of demographics. Fils-Aimé was a member of the advisory council for Cornell's Communication department from 2008 to 2021.

In 2016 and early 2017, Fils-Aimé was featured in two episodes of Deadlock, on the Game Theorists web show, debating about various Nintendo-related topics.

Fils-Aimé announced his resignation as the company's president and COO on February 21, 2019, which took effect on April 15, 2019. He was replaced by the company's then-head of sales, Doug Bowser. Fils-Aimé stated he started thinking about retirement after Iwata's death in 2015: "It also reinforced for me the legacy that he had built, and he had created for the company. And that really drove me to be introspective around, 'So what's the legacy that I want to build, that I want to leave? He waited until he felt Nintendo of America was on solid footing for positive growth, which occurred by early 2019, to begin the process of retiring.

Post-Nintendo After leaving Nintendo, Fils-Aimé created his own Twitter account under the name @Reggie and made his first tweet saying, "Hi Twitter community."

Fils-Aimé announced he had been brought on as the first Leader in Residence at Cornell University's Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management starting in October 2019. Fils-Aimé had already been on the advisory board for Dyson as well as for Cornell's department of communications prior to this appointment, and was approached by Cornell shortly after his retirement announcement about the opportunity. In addition, Fils-Aimé joined the board of directors for the New York Videogame Critics Circle, and became a managing partner in Brentwood Growth Partners, an equity firm based in Kirkland, Washington. Through his positions at Cornell and through the New York Videogame Critics Circle, he wants to provide mentorship opportunities for youth and young adults as to encourage them to grow and become "leaders across a range of as many different disciplines as possible". GameStop named Fils-Aimé along two others onto its board of directors in March 2020, replacing several directors that were leaving as part of the company's efforts to turn the company's profitability around. He and several of GameStop's board members were slated to resign around June 2021 based on SEC filings. He was also named to Spin Master's board of directors in May 2020.

After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Fils-Aimé announced that he and video games journalist Harold Goldberg would start a podcast, Talking Games with Reggie and Harold, in conjunction with the New York Video Game Critics Circle. The podcast is aimed to raise charitable funds for the non-profit group to help mentor lower-income and under-served students in New York City impacted by the pandemic. Fils-Aimé was added to the board of directors at Brunswick Corporation on October 27, 2020, and later authored a book titled Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo released in April 2022.

Accolades Fils-Aimé has been recognized for his marketing expertise in the advertising industry, including receiving a Clio Award, two Gold Effie Awards, an Association of Independent Commercial Producers Award for advertising excellence, a Silver Edison from the American Marketing Institute, and was named one of the "Marketing 100" in 1998 by Advertising Age. Fils-Aimé started playing video games with his children when they were two and five years old.