Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the gaming sector can be a daunting task. That’s why we publish periodic round‑ups that gather the most noteworthy personnel moves in one convenient place. If your organization has 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 promoted to senior vice president of Route‑to‑Market for the Americas at Asmodee.
Trunk has been a partner within the Asmodee family for more than ten years, bringing a deep understanding of the company’s distribution and publishing strategies. Before rejoining Asmodee, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent responsibilities included serving as vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and overseeing the Wizards Play Network.
During his tenure at Wizards, he also held several senior leadership positions, such 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 intersect 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 served as senior account director at Brands2Life and headed communications at Inflexion Games. His résumé also includes senior roles at Improbable and at Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad perspective on media strategy across multiple gaming sub‑segments. 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 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. Prior to this appointment, she acted as publishing operations director at Techland, where she oversaw cross‑functional pipelines that linked development, quality assurance, and market launch activities. Linh Lai secured a full‑time role 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 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 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 is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios.
His background in story architecture and mission flow design will bolster CD Projekt Red’s ambitious open‑world projects. Amir Satvat has taken on the role of general manager at 1Up Ventures. Before this, he was business development director at Tencent Games and founded Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that assists job seekers in the gaming field. Satvat 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. 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.” He added, “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 stint. He joined the company in 2019 as a producer, later serving as 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 a strong background in regulatory and media relations. Jess Pearce was promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce entered Kepler in 2022 as a people advisor, moved to people partner in 2024, and now oversees talent strategy across the rapidly expanding independent publisher.
Shreya Godha earned a promotion to producer at PlaySimple Games, after serving as associate producer on several of the studio’s 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 spent time at Warner Brothers Games Montreal as studio lead for game marketing and communications. Ilari Kuittinen, co‑founder and managing director of Housemarque, stepped down after 31 years.
Kuittinen and Harri Tikkanen founded the studio in 1995 by merging their companies Bloodhouse and Terramarque. Reflecting on his tenure, 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. 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 Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios. Feiman started at Lion in 2020 as EMEA business development lead, later becoming publishing general manager. “I joined Lion six years ago,” she noted.
“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.
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 taken the role of community manager at Sega of America. She previously acted as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and held a digital strategy and community manager position at Undead Labs.
Emily Rose Chen was promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. Chen began her career at the company as a financial analyst in 2020, later moving into product management before earning this senior title.
Finally, Scot McCarron advanced to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron originally joined Activision in 2018 as a product marketing manager for emerging franchises and later served as director of product management on the Call of Duty portfolio before receiving this promotion. These moves illustrate the dynamic nature of talent flow within the interactive entertainment industry, highlighting how experience across publishing, development, marketing, and community engagement continues to shape the sector’s future.