Darrell Rodriguez, the Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts LA, has been named as the next president of LucasArts. He will take on the role in mid-April.

Rodriguez will take the reins from Howard Roffman, who has served as president of the company on an interim basis following Jim Ward's recent departure. The official line was that Ward departed for personal reasons, with LucasArts being coy on further details.

"I couldn't be more excited to join such a dynamic and innovative company as LucasArts", said Rodriguez. "The people are world class and the IP is the best in the business. To be able to work with such cultural icons as Star Wars and Indiana Jones and develop new franchises is like a dream come true."

As COO of EA LA, Rodriguez was "responsible for overall operations, product development and strategic studio growth", in the words of his EA corporate biography. Prior to working at EA, Rodriguez did work ranging from planning theme parks and miniature golf courses to lending money to Fortune 1,000 companies.

EA, for its part, has seen a fair bit of movement in the upper echelons of its business of late. Most recently, it was revealed that Warren Jenson, the company's executive VP and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, would be departing. Prior to that, we saw the appointment of John Pleasants, former Ticketmaster CEO, as EA's overall COO.