Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the games sector can be a real challenge. That’s why we gather the most noteworthy personnel moves into periodic round‑ups for easy reference. If you know of a change that belongs in this list—new appointment, internal transition, or exit—please forward the individual's name, new title, new company, as well as their previous role and employer 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. At Wizards he also held a series of senior leadership posts, 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 converge with something else 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’s résumé includes senior account director at Brands2Life and head of communications at Inflexion Games, as well as senior roles at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver. King has announced that Esther Lopez will return as principal VFX artist.
Lopez first arrived at King in 2014 as a senior artist, earned a promotion to associate principal VFX artist in 2020, and left in 2022 for Meta where she worked as a real‑time VFX art specialist in VR‑AR. "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 after a stint as acting publishing operations director at Techland.
Linh Lai secured a full‑time position as accounting assistant at Newzoo following 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 remarked. "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.
He previously served as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming and development positions at Lightneer. Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. Amir Satvat is now general manager of 1Up Ventures.
Satvat formerly worked as business development director at Tencent Games and is the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that helps job seekers find roles in the industry. "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 said. "I wanted to see more people's dreams of making games come true because of something I did.
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 announced his exit from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure that began in 2019 as a producer. He later became 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 stated. "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 named Giles Derrington director of global affairs UK. Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom. Jess Pearce earned a promotion to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive, having joined as a people advisor in 2022 and moved to people partner in 2024.
Shreya Godha has been promoted to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer. Epic Games appointed Kelly Ekins as director of communications.
Ekins came from Unity, where she was senior director of global PR for the Games and Made with Unity program. Before Unity, she spent time at Warner Brothers Games Montreal as studio lead for game marketing and communications.
Ilari Kuittinen, co‑founder and managing director of Housemarque, is stepping down after 31 years. Kuittinen and Harri Tikkanen merged their companies Bloodhouse and Terramarque in 1995 to create Housemarque. "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 taken the helm as 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. And 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 is now community manager at Sega of America.
Her prior experience includes contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game, as well as digital strategy and community manager at Undead Labs. Emily Rose Chen has been promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard, after joining the company as a financial analyst in 2020 and later moving into product management. Scot McCarron has advanced to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard.
McCarron originally joined Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises before progressing through the product management ladder. These appointments, promotions, and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of talent movement within the interactive entertainment sector, underscoring how experience across publishing, development, finance, and community roles continues to shape the industry's future.