Peter Acworth to Play More Creative Role in New Projects
Kink.com Chief Technical Officer Daniel Riedel has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. He takes over day-to-day management responsibilities from company founder and CEO Peter Acworth, who will assume a more creative role in the company. “Kink.com’s Mission is ‘to demystify and celebrate alternative sexualities by providing the most ethical and authentic kinky adult entertainment,’” said Riedel. “To that end, as Kink.com’s new COO I’ll be looking at new ways to allow our members to explore their own kink within our community by investing in content, technology and strategic partnerships that continue to push Kink.com as a major industry leader.”
Acworth, while remaining on as CEO, will be focusing more on his creative role in the company and less on operations. “Daniel’s promotion gives me a chance to move away from day-to-day management and focus on creative development for Kink.com,” said Acworth. “For example, I am in the process of designing a 24/7 live, interactive reality site which will be hosted in the Armory.”
Acworth said the site, the name of which has not been announced, is being developed in collaboration with other Kink.com directors, and will be his main priority through the rest of 2008 and into 2009.
“The aesthetics are inspired by Roissy in The Story of O,” said Acworth, “so there’s a lot of work developing a period look and feel of the space—a grand dining room, a library, slave’s quarters, that sort of thing. Then there are the lifestyle aspects to be developed—who will populate the community, what the rules will be, and how the membership aspects will work.”
The Story of O, a 1954 French erotic novel by Pauline Reage, was written as a series of letters to the author’s then-lover, and depicts a complicated world of female submission in the Château De Roissy, where the main character, O, becomes a sexual slave. It is considered by many to be the single most important erotic novel in the development of the modern BDSM erotica milieu. The title of the novel served as inspiration for kink.com Director James Mogul’s website TheTrainingofO.com, in which Mogul and others extensively train female slaves.
Prior to becoming CTO of Kink.com in 2007, Riedel worked with executive management in the Business Technology Group at Yahoo. Prior to that, he provided consulting services to companies such as AT&T, Disney and Silicon Graphics through his company Riedel Enterprises. He has assisted startups in a number of roles from advisory to consulting and worked with them to develop their technology plan. He brings a total of fifteen years of management experience to his new role as COO.
Riedel leads an executive team including Senior Vice President/Executive Director Lisset Barcellos, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development John Sander, Director of Human Resources Vince Gamboa, and Manager of Accounting and Finance Chi Lieu.
Kink.com Technology Project Manager Stacia Carr has been promoted to Director of Technology and also joins the executive team, taking over Riedel’s role as manager of the Kink.com Information Technology department.
