Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the games sector can be a daunting task, which is why we publish periodic round‑ups that capture the most notable moves. If you know of any recent appointments or transitions that belong in this list, please forward the individual's name, new title, company, and previous role to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Brian Trunk has been promoted to senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas at Asmodee. Trunk has been affiliated with Asmodee for more than ten years, initially joining as a partner before climbing the ranks.
Prior to his current role, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent position was vice‑president of commercial, digital games revenue, and the Wizards Play Network. During his tenure at Wizards, he also served in a series of senior leadership capacities, including vice‑president and general manager for the EMEA, LATAM, and APAC regions.
"I’m grateful for my years at Wizards of the Coast and for the people who challenged, taught, and shaped me into the leader I am today," Trunk said. "I’ve always believed the most successful businesses are built on great people, strong relationships, trust, and community. At Asmodee, those values intersect with something I care deeply about: a shared love of games. That’s why this move feels personal, and it’s at the heart of how I want to lead here." In other news, David Scarborough has joined Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications.
Scarborough previously held the senior account director role at Brands2Life and was head of communications at Inflexion Games. His résumé also includes senior positions at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad perspective on communications strategy across multiple market segments. King has announced the return of Esther Lopez as a principal VFX artist.
Lopez originally came to King in 2014 as a senior artist, earned a promotion to associate principal VFX artist in 2020, and then left in 2022 to work for Meta as a real‑time VFX art specialist focusing on VR‑AR experiences. "Coming back to somewhere I know well, in a new role, is a rare kind of privilege," Lopez explained. "King is where I grew up as an artist, and where some of my best memories were made, making this opportunity even more special.
After almost four years at Meta building immersive experiences, I hope I can bring the best of that back with me." Magda Marcinkowska has been named production manager in marketing at CD Projekt Red. Before this appointment, she served as acting publishing operations director at Techland, where she oversaw cross‑functional publishing pipelines and helped streamline release schedules for several high‑profile titles.
Linh Lai has secured a permanent accounting assistant role at Newzoo after completing a six‑month internship. "The experiences I’ve gained throughout these six months have helped me better understand not only how individual accounting processes work, but also how they connect to the wider business," Lai said. "I’m excited to take on more responsibility, deepen my accounting and finance knowledge, find more ways to make our accounting processes even more efficient, and contribute more to the team as I grow with Newzoo." Tommi Virolainen has joined Kokoon Games as a senior game programmer.
Virolainen previously worked as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming and development positions at Lightneer, where he contributed to several mobile and console projects. Christopher Holtorf is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. His background in story architecture and quest flow design is expected to strengthen Red’s upcoming RPG initiatives.
Amir Satvat has taken the helm as general manager of 1Up Ventures. Satvat previously acted as business development director at Tencent Games and is also the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that assists industry professionals in finding new opportunities.
"I wanted to feel a more direct connection between the things I could influence and do with a team and putting people back to work," Satvat explained. "I also hoped I could work in a setting focused on smaller studios, because I love games of that size so much, and in a setting built around community first. My final wish was to work with colleagues who share the same values and integrity I try to hold myself to.
In accepting the team’s invitation to join 1Up, I am seeing all of these wishes realised. 1Up is a very important player in the games ecosystem, and I want to see its unique approach to games investing survive for as long as possible." Lasse Seppänen has announced his departure from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure. He joined the company in 2019 as a producer, later becoming head of game production services and general manager for Supercell London.
"Now it’s time to follow my passion for creating new game IPs again," Seppänen said. "I’m staying in the UK, and in 2027 I’m planning to start my own studio once again – more on that when the time is right." Take‑Two Interactive has appointed Giles Derrington as director of global affairs UK. Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom, where he managed regulatory engagement and corporate reputation initiatives. Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive.
Pearce started at Kepler as a people advisor in 2022, moved to people partner in 2024, and now oversees senior talent strategy across the company’s global studios. Shreya Godha has advanced to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer. Her new responsibilities include overseeing live‑ops, feature pipelines, and cross‑functional coordination for the studio’s mobile portfolio. Epic Games has named Kelly Ekins director of communications.
Ekins previously held the senior director of global PR role for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program. Before joining Unity in 2018, she was studio lead for game marketing and communications at Warner Brothers Games Montreal. Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen is stepping down after 31 years.
Kuittinen co‑founded Housemarque with Harri Tikkanen in 1995 after merging their companies Bloodhouse and Terramarque. "Looking back, I feel immensely fortunate," Kuittinen reflected. "We had the luck of being in the right place at the right time during three decades of incredible industry growth, allowing us to stay fiercely independent for 26 years before finding a home within the PlayStation Studios family.
We have been planning this leadership transition carefully behind the scenes. On July 1, Sami ‘Haxu’ Hakala officially stepped into the managing director role, and I have continued supporting him and the leadership team until today to ensure complete operational continuity and stability. Housemarque’s strategy and creative vision are in exceptional hands." Tamara Feiman has been appointed CEO of Lion Studios, the publishing arm of Tripledot Studios.
Feiman began her career at Lion in 2020 as EMEA business development lead, later becoming publishing general manager. "I joined Lion six years ago," she said. "Since then, I’ve had the privilege of growing alongside the company through its biggest successes, challenges and transformations. What has always made Lion special is how we work with our partner studios.
Together, we’ve taken risks, learned quickly and turned great ideas into games played by millions. Lion has never been about one person.
I’m fortunate to work alongside an incredible team across publishing, growth, product, engineering and market intelligence, as well as our talented studio partners around the world." Heather Sangria has joined Sega of America as community manager. Sangria previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and held a digital strategy and community manager role at Undead Labs. Emily Rose Chen has been promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. Chen originally joined the company as a financial analyst in 2020, later moving into product management before assuming her senior role.
Scot McCarron has been elevated to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron began at Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises and progressed to director of product management before his latest promotion.