Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the gaming sector can be a real challenge. That’s why we regularly publish concise round‑ups that capture the most noteworthy personnel moves. If you know of a change that belongs in this list—whether it’s a new appointment, a transition, or a departure—please forward the name, new title, company, and previous position to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Brian Trunk has been elevated to senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas at Asmodee.
Trunk’s relationship with Asmodee spans more than ten years, during which he served as a trusted partner on multiple strategic initiatives. Before re‑joining Asmodee, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, where his most recent responsibilities included overseeing commercial operations, digital‑games revenue streams, and the Wizards Play Network.
His tenure at Wizards also saw him hold a series of senior leadership posts, 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 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 arrives with a robust background in brand and media relations, having previously served as senior account director at Brands2Life and head of communications at Inflexion Games. Earlier roles at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver further honed his expertise in managing high‑visibility campaigns across multiple markets.
King has announced the return of Esther Lopez as 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 at Meta as a real‑time VFX specialist for VR‑AR projects.
"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 oversaw cross‑functional pipelines that linked development, quality assurance, and market launch teams. Linh Lai has transitioned from a six‑month internship to a full‑time accounting assistant role at Newzoo. "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 senior game programmer.
Virolainen previously contributed as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming and development positions at Lightneer, where he helped ship several mobile titles that achieved top‑chart status. Christopher Holtorf is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. His narrative expertise will be applied to shaping the story arcs and player‑driven missions for upcoming Red projects.
Amir Satvat has taken the helm as general manager of 1Up Ventures. Prior to this, Satvat was business development director at Tencent Games and founded Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform dedicated to helping industry professionals find new opportunities. "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 a seven‑year stint that began in 2019 as a producer. He later served 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 has appointed Giles Derrington as director of global affairs for the UK, coming from a role as head of public affairs at TikTok UK.
His mandate will involve overseeing regulatory engagement and corporate communications across the region. Jess Pearce earned a promotion to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce originally joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022 and moved to people partner in 2024, focusing on talent acquisition, development, and retention strategies for the fast‑growing publisher.
Shreya Godha has been elevated to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer. Her new responsibilities include overseeing live‑ops, feature rollouts, and cross‑functional coordination for the company’s casual‑gaming portfolio. Epic Games named Kelly Ekins director of communications.
Ekins previously held the senior director of global PR position for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, after earlier stints as marketing lead for media and entertainment at Unity and as 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 in 1995 with Harri Tikkanen by merging 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. 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.
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 is now community manager at Sega of America. Her background includes contract work as a social strategist and community lead at One More Game, as well as 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.
Chen joined the company in 2020 as a financial analyst, later moving into product management and now overseeing key features and live‑service updates for the flagship franchise. Scot McCarron has advanced to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron originally entered Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises and has since guided multiple product roadmaps, aligning development, monetisation, and community feedback to drive the series forward. These appointments, promotions, and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of talent movement within the video‑game industry, highlighting how experience across publishing, development, marketing, and community engagement continues to shape the sector’s evolution.