Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the games sector can be a real challenge, which is why we put together periodic round‑ups that capture the most noteworthy moves. If you know of a transition that belongs in this list—whether it’s a new appointment, a departure, or an internal promotion—please forward the individual's name, the new title, the company, and their previous position 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 joining as a partner before moving up through the ranks.
Prior to 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 held a series of senior leadership positions, serving as vice president and general manager 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 come together 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." David Scarborough has joined Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications. Before this appointment, Scarborough was senior account director at Brands2Life and head of communications at Inflexion Games.
He has also held senior roles at Improbable and at Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad background in both agency and in‑house communications. King has announced that Esther Lopez will return as a 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 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.
Marcinkowska previously acted as publishing operations director on an interim basis at Techland, where she oversaw the coordination of multiple publishing pipelines. Linh Lai has secured a full‑time position 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 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, where he contributed to several high‑profile mobile titles. Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red. Before this, he served as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios, where he helped craft storylines for several award‑winning RPG projects.
Amir Satvat has taken on the role of general manager at 1Up Ventures. Satvat previously served as business development director 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. "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 has announced his departure from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure. He joined Supercell in 2019 as a producer and later assumed senior responsibilities, including 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 has appointed Giles Derrington as director of global affairs for the UK.
Derrington previously led public affairs at TikTok in the United Kingdom, where he managed government relations and policy strategy. Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce originally joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022, advanced to people partner in 2024, and now oversees senior talent initiatives across the company. Shreya Godha has earned a promotion to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer on several of the studio’s mobile titles.
Epic Games has named Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins came from Unity, where she was senior director of global PR for the Games and Made with Unity program. Prior to that, she started at Unity in 2018 as marketing lead for media and entertainment after a stint at Warner Brothers Games Montreal as studio lead for game marketing and communications.
Ilari Kuittinen, co‑founder and managing director of Housemarque, is stepping down after 31 years. Kuittinen co‑founded the studio with Harri Tikkanen in 1995 following the merger of their companies 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 Lion Studios, the publishing arm of Tripledot Studios. 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. 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 joined Sega of America 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.
Emily Rose Chen has been 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 has been elevated 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 progressing through the product management hierarchy.