EK Water Blocks has seemingly had a strong year, dotted with numerous major product launches and expansion into the mainstream market (with the EK Fluid Gaming series). In spite of this, TechPowerUp just broke news that EKWB’s CEO, CTO, Head of Marketing, and numerous R&D engineers have all departed the company. The company remains 90-strong, but has lost much of its R&D department and head management as of today.
EKWB Founder Edvard Koenig is now acting CEO of the company, and is working to hire new team members in the restructuring.
The following statement was provided to TechPowerUp from former EK CEO Mark Tanko:
“We can confirm that there has been leadership change at EKWB. As a result core management team consisting of CEO, CTO and Head of Marketing has left the company. We respect the decision of the owner to go in different direction. Our views on how to further develop and grow the niche and company were not compatible anymore. - Mark Tanko”
EKWB has several standing product launches for end of year and 2018, which have been given the following roadmap:
- Long awaited EK MLC Phoenix is set to launch until 24th of November in a limited edition version.
- EK-KIT A240R - Fluid Gaming expansion kit with Vega Full Cover water block until end of this month.
- EK-AC Radeon Vega Fluid Gaming expansion full cover water block
- EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink Red, Blue, Green, Purple
- EK-FB ASRock X299 RGB Monoblock (Fits 5 motherboards!)
- EK-FB GA X399 GAMING RGB Monoblock
- EK-FB MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON RGB Monoblock
- EK-FB ASRock X399 RGB Monoblock
Acting CEO Koenig seemed to indicate that the former top management had a different core vision than desired, but we are not sure to what extent.
We are unsure of why EK has made the change to management, as brand visibility and presence has never been stronger, but we’ll see what the result is. This type of change can take years to manifest, as product development cycles are long, and the newly departed employees will have had hands-on with the next few product cycles.
Editorial: Steve Burke