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 gather the most noteworthy moves in one place. If you know of a recent appointment or a transition that belongs in this list, please forward the name, new title, company, and the individual’s previous position to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Brian Trunk has been elevated to senior vice president of Route‑to‑Market for the Americas at Asmodee.
Trunk’s relationship with Asmodee stretches back more than ten years, during which he served as a partner and helped shape the company’s distribution strategy. Before re‑joining Asmodee, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent titles were vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and head of the Wizards Play Network. At Wizards, Trunk also held a series of senior leadership posts, including vice‑president and general‑manager responsibilities 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 duties at Brands2Life and a stint as head of communications for Inflexion Games. He has also filled senior communications roles at Improbable and at Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad perspective on how to shape brand narratives across multiple markets. King has announced the return of Esther Lopez as a principal VFX artist. Lopez originally came aboard 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 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 acted as publishing operations director at Techland, where she oversaw the coordination of multiple titles from concept through launch. Linh Lai has moved from a six‑month internship to a full‑time accounting assistant role at Newzoo.
"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, giving him a strong background in both mobile and console pipelines. Christopher Holtorf is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios, where he helped craft story‑driven quests for several high‑profile RPG projects.
Amir Satvat has taken the helm as general manager of 1Up Ventures. Satvat’s prior role was business development director at Tencent Games, and he also founded Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that assists job seekers 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 explained. "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 departure from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure. He joined the firm 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 appointed Giles Derrington as director of global affairs UK. Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom, bringing experience in navigating regulatory environments and media relations. Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive after joining the company as a people advisor in 2022 and moving to people partner in 2024.
Her role now includes overseeing talent strategy across Kepler’s growing portfolio of studios. Shreya Godha advanced to producer at PlaySimple Games, having previously held the associate producer title at the same developer.
In her new capacity she will oversee end‑to‑end production pipelines for upcoming mobile titles. Epic Games named Kelly Ekins director of communications. Ekins came from Unity, where she was senior director of global PR for the Games and Made with Unity program.
Earlier in her career she served as marketing lead for media and entertainment at Unity and as studio lead for game marketing and communications at Warner Brothers Games Montreal. Ilari Kuittinen, co‑founder and managing director of Housemarque, stepped down after 31 years.
Kuittinen and Harri Tikkanen created Housemarque in 1995 by merging their studios 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 chief executive officer of Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios. Feiman began her career at Lion Studios in 2020 as EMEA business development lead and later served as 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. Prior to this role she worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and held digital strategy and community manager responsibilities at Undead Labs. Emily Rose Chen was 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 earned a promotion 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 advancing through the product management hierarchy. These appointments, promotions, and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of talent movement within the interactive entertainment industry, highlighting how experience across multiple regions, platforms, and disciplines continues to shape the future of games development and publishing.