The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) today announced the appointment of Toys R Us Vice President, John Sullivan, to the position of chairman of the board of directors. He joins an already diverse group of the nations leading retailers of video and computer game merchandise including Wal-Mart, KB Toys, eToys.com, Wherehouse Entertainment, Electronics Boutique, Shopko Stores and Frys Electronics. The group met for their first time one day prior to the start of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last January in Las Vegas, Nevada. The discussions included nothing short of the future of game product retailing.

John represents an ideal chairman for the IEMA. He has been intricately involved in the interactive entertainment industry for almost fifteen years, and utilizes that experience every day, said Hal Halpin, group publisher and president of the CyberActive Media Group. Toys R Us has been very proactive in dealing with many of the same issues now facing the association as a whole and as a result, is best qualified to help guide the IEMA in these matters, he added.

Headed into its third year, the trade association counts thirty-eight out of the $7 billion annual industrys top forty retailers to be among its impressive member roster. Many were motivated to join due to the Columbine School shooting last spring in Colorado, where video and computer game retailing practices were called into question on a national level. Still more of the IEMAs member companies were compelled to join the new association due to a basic need for unifying representation on the national level addressing such issues as the ratings system, game box standardization, merchandising concerns, research/tracking/trending/forecasting, emerging technologies, and consumer-level data reports, all of which will make the members not just better businesses, but better merchants.

The IEMA has truly taken some impressive strides in the past year growing its membership, honoring our common beliefs and values, and agreeing on measures necessary to the industrys future, said John Sullivan. We have been working on some of the same problems now plaguing the association for some time here at Toys R Us, and what we can accomplish, as a united force is significantly different. Im really looking forward to what the coming year brings in terms of challenges for the IEMA, and I am convinced that they will be met head on with determination and conviction, he added.

Current IEMA member companies include: Babbages, Etc., Best Buy, Beyond.com, Cyberian Outpost, Egghead.com, Electronics Boutique, eToys.com, Frys Electronics, Funcoland, Game Dealer, Game Quest, Good Guys, Hastings, Hollywood Video, Kay Bee Toys, Microplay Entertainment, Milton D. Myer/Family Toy, Montgomery Ward, Movie Gallery, The Wiz, Sears Roebuck, Sears Wishbook, Shopko Stores, Target, Toys R Us, Video Update, Virgin Megastores, Wal-Mart, and Wherehouse Entertainment.

Toys R Us, the worlds leading resource for kids, families and fun currently operates 1,534 stores: 707 toy stores in the United States; 450 international toy stores, including franchise stores; 205 Kids R Us childrens clothing stores; 127 Babies R Us stores; and 45 Imaginarium stores. The company also sells merchandise through its Internet sites at www.toysrus.com, www.imaginarium.com and through mail order catalogs.

The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) is the only U.S. trade association dedicated to serving the business interests of leading retailers that sell interactive entertainment software (including video and computer games, multimedia entertainment, peripherals and other software). In addition to operating and managing the IEMA, CyberActive Media Group, Inc. headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, is the interactive entertainment industrys leading channel marketing and services company through its publication, GameWEEK (www.gameweek.com), and through the companys trade-related web sites, GameDaily.com, (www.gamedaily.com), Game Jobs (www.gamejobs.com) and The Official Video Game Yellow Pages (www.vgyellowpages.com). For more information regarding the association, please visit the official IEMA web site located at www.theiema.org.