Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures in the games sector can be a challenge, which is why we publish periodic round‑ups to capture the most notable moves. If your organization has recent staffing changes that belong in this list, 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 has been affiliated with Asmodee for more than ten years, initially joining as a partner.
Before that, 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 served in several senior capacities, 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." David Scarborough has joined Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications. Prior to Blizzard, Scarborough held the senior account director role at Brands2Life and led communications at Inflexion Games.
His résumé also includes senior positions at Improbable and at Koch Media/Deep Silver. King has named Esther Lopez principal VFX artist. Lopez originally came to King in 2014 as a senior artist, was promoted to associate principal VFX artist in 2020, and then departed in 2022 to work at Meta as a real‑time VFX art specialist focusing on VR‑AR. "Returning to a place I know well, in a new capacity, is a rare privilege," Lopez remarked.
"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 appointed production manager in marketing at CD Projekt Red. Before this role, she served as acting publishing operations director at Techland. 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 explained. "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 roles at Lightneer.
Christopher Holtorf is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. Amir Satvat has become general manager of 1Up Ventures.
Satvat formerly was business development director at Tencent Games and is also the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that helps people find jobs 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 said.
"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 exit from Supercell after seven years. He joined Supercell in 2019 as a producer and later held senior positions such 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 UK. Jess Pearce was promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive.
Pearce joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022 and moved to people partner in 2024. Shreya Godha has been elevated to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer. 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, and before that she was marketing lead for media and entertainment at Unity after a stint at Warner Brothers Games Montreal as studio lead for game marketing and communications.
Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen stepped down after 31 years. Kuittinen co‑founded Housemarque with Harri Tikkanen in 1995 following the merger of 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." He continued, "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 CEO of Lion Studios, the publishing arm of Tripledot Studios.
Feiman previously served as publishing general manager, having begun her career at Lion Studios in 2020 as EMEA business development lead. "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 joined Sega of America as community manager.
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 was promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard, after starting as a financial analyst in 2020 and moving into product management.
Scot McCarron has been promoted to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard, having joined the company in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises before advancing to director of product management on the Call of Duty line.