ZOMG - Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden) is stepping down: Will creativity still rule the roost?

I've just learned from Tayzia Abattoir that Philip Rosedale - known to most of us in Second Life as Philip Linden - is stepping down as CEO to Linden Lab, the company he founded and has led since 2002.

According to Adam Reuters, who got the exclusive story, Linden Lab is actively recruiting for a new CEO. Philip will then become chairman of the Linden Lab board, replacing Mitch Kapor, who will remain on the board.

The biggest news here to Second Life users is that this will surely have an impact on the culture (or counter-culture) and the governance of our virtual world, especially when you consider that Philip abandoned the original concept for what Second Life should be - a combat game, or a simulated environment - after he attended the Real Life annual desert happening Burning Man - and determined that, like Burning Man, Second Life would be "a wonderland of creative projection" - (Quote lifted from "The Making of Second Life," by Wagner James Au).

The bottom line here... the virtual civilization that Philip Linden birthed and has nurtured to date, places creative people at the top of the hierarchy. Will this change, and if so, who (or what) will rise to the top of the food chain?