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 periodic round‑ups that capture the most noteworthy moves. If you know of any recent personnel changes that belong in this list—new appointments, internal transitions, or notable exits—please forward the 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’s relationship with Asmodee dates back more than ten years, during which he served as a partner and helped shape the company’s distribution strategy across multiple territories. Prior to rejoining Asmodee, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent responsibilities included overseeing commercial operations, digital‑games revenue streams, and the Wizards Play Network. At Wizards he also held a series of senior leadership posts, such as vice‑president and general manager for the EMEA, LATAM and APAC regions, giving him a truly global perspective on how games reach players.
"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 brings a wealth of experience from previous roles as senior account director at Brands2Life, head of communications at Inflexion Games, and senior positions at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver. His background in both agency and in‑house communications equips him to handle Blizzard’s messaging across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. King has announced that Esther Lopez is returning 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 at Meta as a real‑time VFX specialist for VR‑AR projects.
"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. She previously acted as publishing operations director at Techland, where she oversaw the coordination of multiple titles from concept through launch. Her expertise in production pipelines and marketing logistics will support CD Projekt Red’s ambitious slate of upcoming releases. Linh Lai secured a full‑time role as accounting assistant 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 remarked. She added that she looks forward to taking on more responsibility, deepening her finance knowledge, and finding ways to make Newzoo’s accounting operations even more efficient. Tommi Virolainen has joined Kokoon Games as a senior game programmer.
Virolainen comes from a background that includes a tech programmer stint at Metacore and senior programming and development positions at Lightneer, giving him a strong foundation in both performance‑critical code and gameplay systems. Christopher Holtorf is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. His storytelling chops and experience crafting branching questlines will be applied to the studio’s next open‑world RPG. Amir Satvat has taken the helm as general manager of 1Up Ventures.
Previously, Satvat was business development director at Tencent Games and the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that helps industry professionals find new opportunities. He explained his motivation: "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. 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." He added, "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 departure from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure. He joined Supercell 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.
He plans to stay in the UK and aims to launch his own studio in 2027, promising more details when the timing 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 relationships and media strategy. 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 initiatives across the company’s global studios. Shreya Godha earned a promotion to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer.
In her new role she will shepherd titles from concept through launch, coordinating design, art, and engineering teams. Epic Games named Kelly Ekins director of communications.
Ekins previously held the senior director of global PR position for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, after joining Unity in 2018 as marketing lead for media and entertainment. Before Unity she was studio lead for game marketing and communications at Warner Brothers Games Montreal. Housemarque’s co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen stepped down after 31 years. Kuittinen co‑founded the studio in 1995 alongside Harri Tikkanen, merging their earlier companies Bloodhouse and Terramarque.
Reflecting on his career, he said, "Looking back, I feel immensely fortunate. 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." He added that the transition was carefully planned: "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 named 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. But 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 has become community manager for Sega of America. Previously she 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, giving her a solid foundation in building and nurturing player communities.
Emily Rose Chen was promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. Chen started at the company in 2020 as a financial analyst, moved into product management, and now oversees the roadmap and feature set for the franchise’s flagship titles. Scot McCarron also received a promotion, becoming senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron joined Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises and has since progressed through several product leadership positions, now steering the long‑term vision for the series.
These appointments, promotions, and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of talent movement within the interactive entertainment industry, highlighting how experience across regions, disciplines, and company sizes continues to shape the future of gaming.