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, giving readers a single place to catch up on who’s joining where and who’s moving on. If your organization has a recent appointment or a transition you think belongs in this list, please forward the name, new title, company, and the individual’s 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 as a partner before taking on broader responsibilities. Prior to his current role, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent titles included vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and oversight of the Wizards Play Network.
During his tenure at Wizards, Trunk also served as vice president and general manager for the EMEA, LATAM, and APAC regions, gaining a truly global perspective on publishing, distribution, and community engagement. "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 headed communications at Inflexion Games. His résumé also includes senior communications roles at Improbable and at Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad background in both publisher and developer public‑relations strategies. 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 specialist focused 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, Marcinkowska acted as publishing operations director at Techland, where she oversaw the coordination of multiple titles from concept through launch. Linh Lai has secured a permanent accounting assistant position 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 joins Kokoon Games as a senior game programmer.
Virolainen’s background includes a stint as a tech programmer at Metacore and senior programming and development roles at Lightneer, where he helped ship several mobile and console titles. Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red. He previously served as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios, contributing to story‑driven content for several high‑profile projects. Amir Satvat has taken the helm as general manager of 1Up Ventures.
Satvat came from a business‑development director role at Tencent Games and is also the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), an initiative 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 seven years of service.
He joined the studio 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 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 named Giles Derrington director of global affairs UK. Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom, where he managed regulatory and policy engagement for the platform.
Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce joined Kepler in 2022 as a people advisor, moved to people partner in 2024, and now oversees senior talent strategy across the company’s global studios. Shreya Godha has been elevated to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer on several of the developer’s mobile titles.
Epic Games appointed Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins previously held the senior director of global PR role for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, after a tenure at Warner Brothers Games Montreal where she led studio‑level marketing and communications. Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen is stepping 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 has been appointed chief executive officer of Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios division.
Feiman began her career at Lion Studios 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 become community manager for Sega of America.
Previously she worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and handled digital strategy and community management 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 in 2020 as a financial analyst, later moving into product management before earning her senior title.
Scot McCarron has been elevated to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron entered Activision in 2018 as a product marketing manager for emerging franchises and progressed through the product management hierarchy to his current senior director role. These appointments and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of talent movement within the interactive entertainment sector, where experience across multiple regions, platforms, and disciplines continues to shape the future of game development and publishing.