Stuart W. Evey, the well-known former oil executive and ex-chairman of the all-sports cable network ESPN, has joined Cyan Inc., of Spokane, as director of strategic planning.


Cyan, the maker of the hot-selling Myst and Riven computer games, says it has brought Evey, who lives in Spokane, on board to assist in strategic planning as the company develops new projects for the next phase of computer entertainment. The company declines to discuss those new projects at this time.


Earlier in his career, Evey worked as vice president of diversified operations at Getty Oil Co., of Los Angeles, where he was responsible for worldwide non-oil operations. In that capacity, Evey and his organization launched ESPN in 1979, and he served as its chairman until the network was sold to ABC-Capital Cities Inc. in 1984. He worked as vice president of diversified operations at Getty Oil until it was sold in 1984 to Texaco Inc.


Evey also has served on the board of directors of Mitsubishi Oil Co., the big Japanese concern, and of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., the Irwindale, Calif.-based parent of Home Savings of America.


Cyan, which currently employs 31 people, exploded onto the computer entertainment scene in 1993 with its release of Myst, a computer game that the company claims is the best selling CD-ROM game to date. In 1997, the company released a sequel, Riven, which reached the million units sold plateau faster than any other piece of software besides Windows95. The combined sales of the two games exceed 9 million copies.