Featured Speaker
Daryl Holt

Senior Vice President/Group GM, EA Tiburon Studios (Orlando, Austin, Madrid & Victoria) & American Football

As senior vice president and group general manager for the EA Tiburon development studios in Orlando, Austin, Madrid, and Victoria and American Football, Daryl Holt is responsible for a portfolio of franchises that includes Madden NFL™, EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, and EA SPORTS College Football, as well as additional intellectual property in development on HD, mobile, and emerging platforms.  Holt is also responsible for the American Football business globally, managing strategy and operations for Electronic Arts (EA) in Florida, and serving as a key leader in community, DEI, education, and legislative efforts for the company.  

Holt began his tenure at EA Tiburon in 2004 in art production management.  In addition to leading development for many of EA’s world-famous game titles over the course of his career, Holt was also a key architect of EA’s game development framework (GDF) and a pioneer for establishing the use of analytics and insights for game development and live services in the industry.  Holt was named chief operating officer of the EA Tiburon studio in 2008, vice president of operations for EA SPORTS in 2010, VP/COO of EA SPORTS worldwide development in 2011, VP/Head of Operations for EA SPORTS Worldwide Studios in December 2013, and VP/GM for EA SPORTS worldwide studios in October 2018, before becoming SVP/Group GM for EA SPORTS in 2022.

Holt has over 34 years of successful management experience in a variety of industries and a background in consultancy.  He previously served as president/CEO of Ovation Media Group Inc. in Tampa, Florida, by providing contracted creative services to major entertainment and multimedia companies either directly or through a strategic partnership with Paper 2 Pixel Creative Group Inc. Holt has also held a variety of leadership positions with Jibe Inc. in Tampa, Florida; Mediacentric Group in Clearwater, Florida; Moon Communications in Clearwater, Florida; All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida; and, Accenture, in Tampa, Florida.  He earned degrees in accounting and management information systems at Stetson University and studied computer animation at the International Academy of Design.

Currently, Holt serves on the executive board of directors for the Orlando Economic Partnership, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, and is the chair of the board for the newly formed Innovate Orlando entity.  Holt has also received recognition as one of Florida’s “500 Most Influential Business Leaders” by Florida Trend Magazine (2018 – 2023), as one of Crain Communication’s “Crain 100” (100 Innovators, Disruptors, and Change Makers in Business across the United States), and as one of the Orlando Business Journal’s twenty (20) people to watch in 2020 and “Central Florida’s 2022 Power Players.” Most recently, he was selected as a 2024 inductee for the National Center for Simulation’s Modeling & Simulation Hall of Fame.