George Harrison was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communication at Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 of America when he left at the end of December 2007.

Education

Harrison holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut

The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...

 in finance

Finance

"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

 and holds a master's degree in marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

.

Pepsi Co.

Harrison was a director of marketing for Pepsi USA and Pepsi Bottling Groups's southern U.S. division.

Quaker Oats

Before joining Nintendo, George Harrison worked for Quaker Oats, and directed two new ventures.

Nintendo of America

George Harrison oversaw retail merchandising, publications, advertising, corporate communications and promotions at Nintendo of America. Harrison joined the company in March 1992 as Director of Advertising and Promotions. In July 1993, Harrison was promoted to the position of Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications. Harrison's most recent promotion was in 2001.

In June 2007 he was rumored to have resigned, most likely due to not wanting to move his family from Washington to San Francisco or New York, where Nintendo is moving their marketing branches in July. However, Nintendo responded on June 8 to this rumor as nothing more but 'speculation' and has refused to comment further since. In a recent E3 interview with Harrison, online site GameDaily BIZ questioned whether or not the rumor was true. In response, Harrison stated that while he would prefer "not answering", he is "involved in making the transition happen because Reggie's the President and will stay in Redmond, and we're getting underway with a big recruiting effort because, not surprisingly, a variety of people are not going to make the move. So in September I'll be working long and hard in San Francisco opening the office and hopefully welcoming and orienting new employees."

On September 14, 2007, Harrison confirmed the rumors to Reuters via telephone, saying "I have confirmed to all employees that I will be leaving at the end of December and not making the move to California".