Star Trek Online Executive Producer Dan Stahl has thrown in the proverbial towel over at Cryptic. In a long letter to the players and fans, Dan left by saying "This was a difficult decision but ultimately one that will start a new chapter for me and my family." With a little over a year under his belt Dan has overseen several changes in STO since replacing Craig Zinkievich in July 2010. The biggest news of late being the purchase of Cryptic by Perfect World as well as the new free-to-play model. On the former, Dan mentions that he's "confident that the future of Star Trek Online is secure with Perfect World."

Dan also mentioned his successor as Executive Producer: "Stephen D’Angelo, formerly the lead programmer on STO and current CTO of Cryptic, is returning to manage the project and ensure that the free-to-play launch goes off without a hitch. Stephen not only loves Star Trek, but has a strong understanding of how STO works under the hood and has personally been responsible for the majority of our performance improvements over the last several months to prepare for the onslaught of new users. He will be working directly with the very talented leadership team on the project to ensure that all of the features and content I’ve been talking about in the Engineering Reports are delivered with high quality. Stephen will be driving the schedule through F2P launch and the months after to ensure that the switch over goes well and that there is a solid content plan after re-launch."

We wish Dan the best and hope he's successful in his future endeavors. You can check out the full "Special Communique" (that sounds familiar) here.

(Source)