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 industry insiders a single place to catch up on who’s joining which studio, who’s moving up the ladder, and who’s stepping away to pursue new ventures. If you know of any recent appointments or transitions that belong in this list, please forward the name, new title, company, and previous role to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Brian Trunk has been named senior vice president of Route‑to‑Market for the Americas at Asmodee.
Trunk is no stranger to the company – he has served as a partner at Asmodee for more than ten years, helping shape its distribution and publishing strategies across multiple regions. Before re‑joining Asmodee in a senior capacity, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent titles included vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and head of the Wizards Play Network. During his tenure at Wizards, Trunk also held a series of high‑impact leadership positions, such as vice president and general manager for the EMEA, LATAM and APAC territories.
Reflecting on his career, Trunk said, “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. I’ve always believed the most successful businesses are built on great people, strong relationships, trust, and community.” He added, “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, Blizzard Entertainment has welcomed David Scarborough as senior manager of EMEA communications. Scarborough arrives with a strong background in brand and communications work, having previously served as senior account director at Brands2Life and head of communications at Inflexion Games.
His résumé also includes senior stints at Improbible and at Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad perspective on how to shape messaging for large, global gaming audiences. King has announced the return of Esther Lopez, appointing her as principal VFX artist. Lopez originally joined 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.
Speaking about her comeback, Lopez remarked, “Coming back to somewhere I know well, in a new role, is a rare kind of privilege. King is where I grew up as an artist, and where some of my best memories were made, making this opportunity even more special.” She hopes to bring the immersive techniques she honed at Meta back into King’s mobile‑first titles.
CD Projekt Red has added Magda Marcinkowska to its marketing team as production manager. Prior to this, Marcinkowska acted as publishing operations director on an interim basis at Techland, where she oversaw the coordination of multiple launch pipelines and helped streamline cross‑functional workflows.
Newzoo has promoted Linh Lai from a six‑month internship to a full‑time accounting assistant role. Lai reflected on her experience, saying, “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.
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.” Kokoon Games has brought on Tommi Virolainen as senior game programmer. Virolainen previously worked as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming and development positions at Lightneer, where he contributed to several high‑profile mobile titles. CD Projekt Red also announced Christopher Holtorf as its new senior quest designer.
Holtorf comes from Intrepid Studios, where he served as senior narrative designer, crafting story arcs and mission structures for large‑scale online experiences. 1Up Ventures has named Amir Satvat its general manager.
Satvat previously acted as business development director at Tencent Games and is the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform dedicated to helping job seekers find opportunities within the industry. 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.” He added, “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.” Satvat also praised 1Up’s unique investment model, stating, “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.” After seven years at Supercell, Lasse Seppänen has announced his departure. Seppänen joined the Finnish powerhouse in 2019 as a producer, later advancing to head of game production services and eventually general manager for Supercell London. He shared his next steps, saying, “Now it’s time to follow my passion for creating new game IPs again. 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 appointed Giles Derrington as director of global affairs for the UK.
Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom, where he managed regulatory engagement and corporate communications on a national scale. Kepler Interactive promoted Jess Pearce to senior people partner. Pearce originally joined Kepler in 2022 as a people advisor, moved to people partner in 2024, and now oversees talent strategy across the publisher’s growing portfolio.
PlaySimple Games elevated Shreya Godha to producer. Godha had been an associate producer at the studio, contributing to the design and launch of several casual titles.
Epic Games announced Kelly Ekins as its new director of communications. Ekins previously served as senior director of global PR for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, after starting at 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 is stepping down after a remarkable 31‑year tenure. Kuittinen co‑founded the studio in 1995 alongside Harri Tikkanen, merging their earlier companies Bloodhouse and Terramarque.
Reflecting on his career, Kuittinen 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 noted that the transition has been carefully planned, with Sami “Haxu” Hakala officially assuming the managing director role on July 1, while Kuittinen continues to support the leadership team to ensure smooth continuity. Tamara Feiman has been named 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.
She reflected, “I joined Lion six years ago. 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.” Sega of America has added Heather Sangria as community manager. Sangria previously 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 fostering player engagement across platforms.
Activision Blizzard promoted Emily Rose Chen to senior product manager for Call of Duty. Chen began at the company in 2020 as a financial analyst, later moving into product management and now overseeing the flagship franchise’s roadmap and feature set.
Activision Blizzard also promoted Scot McCarron to senior director of product management for Call of Duty. McCarron joined the firm in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises, later advancing to director of product management before assuming his new senior director responsibilities. These movements illustrate the dynamic nature of talent flow within the gaming ecosystem, where experience in one segment often translates into fresh perspectives in another, driving innovation and growth across the industry.