Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions and departures across the games sector can be a real challenge, which is why we publish regular round‑ups of the most noteworthy moves. If you know of a change that belongs in this list, please forward the name, new title, new company and previous role to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Former Epic Games executive Ben Board has been installed as chief executive of The Performance Guys, the optimisation arm of CodeDev Group.
Board joined Epic in 2017 as a developer support manager, later becoming business development director for the Epic Game Store and Unreal Engine. His résumé also includes senior leadership positions at Bullfrog Productions, Lionhead Studios and BossAlien. "Ben is a genuine industry heavyweight whose reputation and technical expertise speak for themselves," said CodeDev Group CEO Myke Parrot. "He understands game development from the low‑level engine code to the high‑level relationships with platform owners.
Appointing him as CEO sends a clear signal: if your title suffers from performance issues on any engine, we have the world’s best team to fix it." James Turner is back at The Pokémon Company International, this time as creative director of Pokémon Art and Design. Turner left Game Freak in 2022 to co‑found All Possible Futures with Jonathan Biddle; the studio launched its debut title, The Plucky Squire, in September 2024. Billy King has taken the role of lead concept artist at Respawn Entertainment.
King previously led concept work at ZeniMax Online Studios and served as senior concept artist for Amazon Games. Sam Duncombe moves to Team 17 as brand marketing manager after a stint as product manager for games and film at Warner Bros. Discovery. Cansu Karahan Can joins Loom Games as people and culture manager, having previously held the same position at Stoikk (formerly Kompanion).
Christopher Wulf has been promoted to senior business development manager at Fellow Traveler. He first joined Fellow Traveler in 2021 after serving as senior business and event manager for The Triple‑i Initiative. Julie Derhak becomes a producer for the Dungeons & Dragons line at Wizards of the Coast. Derhak spent seven years at Epic Games, where she worked on Fortnite Tech Art and the Lego Fortnite collaboration.
Alvaro Menéndez is named international social lead for Mojang Studios. Before that he was senior marketing manager for Epic Games in Madrid. Linus Johnsson has been elevated to senior audio designer at Frontier Developments.
He originally joined Frontier in 2022 as a graduate audio designer and has progressed steadily since. Nate Nanzer departs Epic Games after a seven‑year tenure to assume the EVP role heading commercial and marketing at Paramount Games.
At Epic he most recently served as senior vice‑president of partnerships and monetisation. "The scale of ambition here is incredibly exciting," Nanzer said.
"My career has always sat at the crossroads of games, entertainment and fandom, and the chance to help shape what comes next at Paramount was simply too compelling to pass up." Julia Gutnik steps into the head of media position at Amazon Gaming. She previously led media, social and analytics for Kia America and spent over six years at Prime Video and Amazon Studios, where she oversaw digital and ad‑tech media. Lorna Antoniazzi is appointed art producer at Studio MDHR, after producing at Roarty Digital on projects such as Fortnite Battle Royale and Lego Fortnite.
Aysu Kutbay becomes product manager at Grand Games, having previously managed products at Rollic. David Bailey returns to Games Workshop as lead commercial manager – licensing. Bailey first joined Games Workshop in 2019 as senior licensing manager, left in 2021 for a director role at Sumo Digital, and now comes back to help steer licensing for the Warhammer universe. Liana Murphy takes on the role of account director for US operations at Second Stage, after serving concurrently as COO and head of public relations at Vicariously and V Publishing.
Tim Coombs is named head of brand marketing for Amazon Luna. He previously directed brand management at Xbox until July 2026, having joined the division in 2020 as senior manager for brand strategy. Earlier, he led product marketing for Amazon Lumberyard (2017) and later for Amazon Game Tech.
Erik Mogensen exits Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast after three years as senior director of business development for digital gaming. Prior to that he spent 23 years at Games Workshop, most recently as head of business development and consumer product licensing.
"Working on my favourite brands – Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Transformers – has been a privilege," he reflected. Ryan Rubin joins Blizzard Entertainment as senior producer. Rubin previously produced two mobile titles for Netflix – Squid Game: Unleashed and Selling Sunset – and spent five years at Riot Games working on creative development for the League of Legends IP.
Andrey Odintsov becomes head of marketing at Battlestate Games. He formerly managed user acquisition at Multicast Games and now operates as an independent growth and go‑to‑market consultant. Dan Lazarides is appointed chief marketing officer at Frontier Developments, succeeding Jo Cooke after she moved to the CEO role.
Lazarides previously served as senior vice‑president of marketing for Sega Europe. "Dan brings a wealth of experience from some of the industry's biggest IPs and will help us maintain our player‑first strategy," said CEO Jo Cooke. Karen Ionescu takes the digital sales manager role at Kalypso Media UK, after sales leadership positions at Numskull Games, Nintendo and Rising Star Games. Managing director Andrew Johnson praised her extensive commercial background and strong retailer relationships.
Hannah Barrett is promoted to senior account executive at esports and gaming communications agency Swipe Right, having joined as an account executive in December 2025. Supercell names Anni Pyy as contract manager; Pyy previously held the same position at Metacore for four years. Nathan Solbrandt becomes senior vice‑president of business development at fintech platform ZBD, after senior account work at Motorica and a vice‑president role at Xsolla for the Americas.
Olivia Lee is hired as internal events producer at Riot Games, following an associate producer role for internal programs. Ciarah Pritchard joins Xsolla as account coordinator, after serving as account performance manager at Playback Rewards. Tracey Thompson returns to Bethesda as vice‑president of communications.
Thompson originally joined Bethesda in 2009, left in 2019 for EA, and now looks forward to supporting iconic franchises across Bethesda and Xbox. Maddie Richter becomes social media marketing manager for Nintendo of America, after a stint as social media manager at Alaska Airlines. Dana Duffield joins Yotta Games as narrative designer, following senior narrative work at Series Entertainment.
Yogscast Games announces three new hires: Charlotte Willis (PR and influencer manager, formerly creator and community director at Diva Agency), Robin Mawhinney (production coordinator, previously junior producer at Atelier 11) and Charlotte Pang (publishing coordinator, former producer/animator/artist for Team Gramps and Queensguard, and former instructor at Submarine Art School and The Code Zone). Steffen Holm and Chris Kruger join Roblox’s Foundation AI team to bolster the mobile‑first AI creation tool Build in New Zealand. The duo co‑founded Jars AI in 2023 and raised $3.5 million from Google and other investors. Sathvik Sudireddy becomes marketing manager for live services at Rockstar Games, after product management on Call of Duty at Activision and a business‑development internship at the studio.
Joe Chard is appointed lead product manager at Netflix Games, bringing experience as vice‑president, studio general manager and head of product at Jam City, plus senior roles at Disney and Warner Bros.