Bernie Stolar rises again as chairman of Vivo Products

Bernie Stolar has worked for everyone in the video game industry. So it’s no surprise to see him appointed chairman today of Vivo Products, a manufacturer of consumer electronics entertainment products.

Over the course of a 30-year career, Stolar has been a big newsmaker in the game industry. He was executive vice president of third-party content for the Sony Playstation, but was fired just before the launch of that system. He was president and chief operating officer of Sega of America, but again was fired before the launch of the Dreamcast game console. (He often didn’t get along with his Japanese overseers). And he was president of Mattel Interactive.

More recently, he was chairman of Adscape Media, which Google bought to get into the in-game advertising business. And he is an active advisor to a wide range of startups and investment firms. Stolar is well known for his outspoken opinions.

Paul Chen is president and chief operating officer of Vivo Products, which was founded last year to deliver video and music to consumers. The company’s current products include the Gene Simmons AXE guitar controller for Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, the Jillian Michaels Flash Drive, and the Vivo Video portable MP4 media player.

The San Francisco-based company also appointed Kelli Richards, a veteran of music-related jobs at EMI and Apple, as vice president of business development and content partnerships.

Stolar will appear on a panel about taking on big companies at VentureBeat’s GamesBeat 09 conference on March 24.