Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the gaming sector can be a real challenge, which is why we publish periodic round‑ups that capture the most notable moves. If you know of a transition that belongs in this list—whether it’s a new appointment, a promotion, or a departure—please forward the name, new title, company, and the person’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 joining as a partner before moving up through the organization’s commercial ranks.
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 head 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, overseeing sales, distribution, and partnership development across multiple continents.
"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." David Scarborough has joined Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications. Before this appointment, Scarborough was senior account director 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 perspective on media strategy across both publisher and developer environments.
King has promoted Esther Lopez to principal VFX artist. Lopez originally entered 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. She previously acted as publishing operations director on an interim basis at Techland, where she helped streamline release pipelines and coordinate cross‑functional teams.
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 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 brings prior experience as a tech programmer at Metacore and senior programming and development roles at Lightneer, where he focused on performance optimisation and engine tooling. Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red. Before this, he served as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios, contributing to story‑driven quest architecture for several high‑profile titles. Amir Satvat has taken on the role of general manager at 1Up Ventures.
Satvat previously worked as business development director at Tencent Games and is the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform 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," he said. "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 announced his departure from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure. He joined the company in 2019 as a producer, later becoming 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 explained. "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 regulatory relationships and corporate communications.
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 talent strategy for the rapidly expanding publisher. Shreya Godha has advanced to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer.
In her new capacity she will oversee end‑to‑end production pipelines for the company’s mobile portfolio. Epic Games named Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins previously served as senior director of global PR for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, after a stint at Warner Brothers Games Montreal where she led studio‑level marketing and communications. Ilari Kuittinen, co‑founder and managing director of Housemarque, has stepped down after 31 years.
Kuittinen co‑established the studio in 1995 alongside Harri Tikkanen by merging their firms Bloodhouse and Terramarque. "Looking back, I feel immensely fortunate," he 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, a division of Tripledot 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 has become community manager for Sega of America.
She 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.
Chen started at 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 joined the firm in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises, progressed to director of product management on Call of Duty, and now oversees the broader product roadmap for the flagship series. These appointments, promotions, and departures illustrate the dynamic nature of the games industry, where talent moves frequently and leadership changes often signal new strategic directions for studios and publishers alike.