The noteworthy example of a non-gamer hire is Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. I've never seen any positive gamer news covering him because of his desire to beat franchises to death with yearly updates.
(As much as gamers claim to despise franchises and sequelmania, it's all the market seems to want.)
I think non-gamer people are a lot more common on the publisher side. Which maybe explains how publishers get away with the massive power imbalance compared to developers. I've never worked for a publisher, just pure development studios, so I can't really comment.
(As much as gamers claim to despise franchises and sequelmania, it's all the market seems to want.)