Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures in the video‑game sector can be a real challenge, which is why we publish periodic round‑ups that gather all the notable moves in one place. If you know of a recent appointment or transition that belongs in this list, please forward the individual's name, new title, new employer, as well as their previous position and company 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 associated with Asmodee for more than ten years, initially joining as a partner and later taking on a series of strategic responsibilities.
Before his current role, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent title was vice president of commercial, digital‑games revenue, and the Wizards Play Network. During his tenure at Wizards, he also served as vice president and general manager for the EMEA, LATAM, and APAC regions, overseeing worldwide sales, licensing, and market‑entry initiatives. "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 previously held the senior account director position at Brands2Life and was head of communications at Inflexion Games. His résumé also includes senior communications roles at Improbable and at Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad perspective on brand storytelling across multiple gaming verticals.
King has announced the return of Esther Lopez as principal VFX artist. Lopez originally entered 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 acted as publishing operations director at Techland, where she coordinated cross‑functional pipelines between development, quality assurance, and distribution teams. Linh Lai has secured a full‑time 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 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 joins 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 specialized in performance‑critical engine work for mobile titles. Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red. His most recent role was senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios, where he crafted branching storylines and integrated gameplay mechanics for large‑scale RPG projects.
Amir Satvat becomes general manager of 1Up Ventures. Satvat previously served as business development director at Tencent Games and is also the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that assists job‑seekers in the gaming sector. "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. He joined the company in 2019 as a producer, later becoming head of game production services and eventually general manager for Supercell London. "Now it’s time to follow my passion for creating new game IPs again," Seppänen explained. "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, where he managed regulatory outreach and corporate communications. Jess Pearce earned a promotion to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce started at Kepler as a people advisor in 2022, moved to people partner in 2024, and has been instrumental in shaping talent acquisition and employee experience strategies across the publisher’s global studios.
Shreya Godha was promoted to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer, where she coordinated cross‑functional teams on mobile puzzle titles and helped streamline release pipelines. Epic Games 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, after joining Unity in 2018 as marketing lead for media and entertainment. Earlier in her career she was studio lead for game marketing and communications at Warner Brothers Games Montreal. Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen stepped down after 31 years.
Kuittinen co‑founded Housemarque with Harri Tikkanen in 1995 following the merger of 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 was appointed chief executive officer 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 joined Sega of America as community manager. She previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and held digital strategy and community management duties at Undead Labs. Emily Rose Chen was promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard after starting as a financial analyst in 2020 and later moving into product management roles within the franchise.
Scot McCarron 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 taking on increasingly senior product‑management responsibilities on the flagship Call of Duty series.