When a retail game from a noted PC developer launches and is then quickly found to be broken, who do you bring in to help fix things? In Stardock's case, they hired a guy who made mods for Civilization.
A few weeks back, Stardock released fantasy strategy title Elemental, and it was broken. Really broken. Customers were unhappy, the company's image was tarnished, and so changes had to be made. Brad Wardell, who is not only CEO of Stardock but was also lead designer on Elemental, is stepping aside from that role on the game to allow Derek Paxton to take over.
Paxton is well-known amongst Civilization IV mod users, as he's the man behind Fall From Heaven, probably the best modification to the classic strategy game available.
Best of luck, Derek. We hear you've got one hell of a job ahead of you!
Stardock Hires Civilization 4 Mod Creator to Run Game Development [Shacknews]