Marvel Chief Market Officer Bill Jemas has broken his silence, and released the following statement about his change in position at the company (see 'Jemas Becomes Chief Marketing Officer').

Greetings from The House of Ideas.

Early last week, Marvel announced that I had changed jobs from COO to Chief Marketing Officer.  This move significantly reduced my daily responsibilities for publishing and licensing.  Since the nature of this shift was somewhat ambiguous, many good people in the comic community and the licensing business called to express their concern for me and for Marvel. 

Today, I'd like to say publicly what I have told my friends in private. This has been a voluntary and important transition. I continue to support, help guide and implement the management changes at Marvel, and I am very much looking forward to the new challenges I will have with respect to my own role within the company. 

If you are reading this, you probably know the highlights of the past four years and understand that right now, Marvel Publishing and Consumer Products are thriving.  What had looked like mission impossible in 1999 is mission accomplished in 2003.  I feel very confident about handing the torch to both Dan Buckley and Tim Rothwell who will continue the growth curve in these divisions over the next several years.  We brought them here to do the job that their strong backgrounds and industry experience have trained them to do. 

At the same time, the friends that I work for and with are giving me reign to do what I do best; exploring new challenges.  I have some ideas about how Marvel's remarkable assets and expertise might be applied to new business areas.  I am grateful for the support I am getting to pursue these opportunities, and do not intend to let the team down. 

Marvel's senior management team is a closely-knit group. Over the past 4 years, we have survived some pretty hard times by pulling together as a team and by forging strong relationships with our creative and business partners.  Now that we have turned our businesses around, we would be foolish to turn our backs on each other and wise to explore new areas where our proven entertainment business model can be applied.

Best,

Bill