GenArts, Special-Effects Software Firm, Gets Big-Name CEO

GenArts, a little Cambridge company that makes software plug-ins used to create special effects in movies like 'Indiana Jones 4' and 'Iron Man,' just hired its first outside CEO, Katherine Hays. Hays was a founder of Massive, Inc., a company that pioneered the concept of advertising in videogames. GenArts founder Karl Sims will stay with the company and continue serving as president.

The official press release is here.

GenArts took some outside venture capital earlier this year from Insight Venture Partners in New York, but the amount wasn't disclosed. The company was founded in 1996.

(I wrote about GenArts, and New England's larger special effects community, in the Globe a few years back.)