SANTA MONICA — Amazon’s Mary Osako has joined Activision Blizzard as SVP of global communications, reporting into CEO Bobby Kotick. 

Osako replaces Maryanne Lataif  who recently parted ways with the company after 19 years. Osako oversees product communications, corporate communications and consumer PR.
“It is a wonderful to be part of an organization that values a communications function,” Osako said about reporting to the CEO.

Monte Lutz, who leads communications for Activision Publishing — including its blockbuster games like Call of Duty, Destiny, Skylanders — has a dotted line matrix to Osako. Activision Blizzard consists of both Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment, maker of games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone.

Activision Blizzard’s PR agencies include PMKBNC, Sard and Rubenstein. Edelman works on the digital side of the business, but that does not report into communications. 

For almost five years, Osako had been director of corporate comms director at Amazon where she oversaw initiatives on litigation, M&A and crisis communications reporting to VP of global communications Craig Berman. Before that, Osako held comms jobs at Yahoo and Ask.com.