Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the games sector can be a daunting task, which is why we publish periodic round‑ups that gather all the noteworthy moves in one place. If your organization has recent staffing changes that belong in this list, please forward the name of the individual, their new title, the company they are joining, as well as their previous position and employer 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 a long‑standing partner of the Asmodee family for more than ten years, and before that he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast. At Wizards his most recent responsibilities included serving as vice president of commercial, overseeing digital games revenue, and directing the Wizards Play Network. Earlier in his Wizards tenure he also held 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 converge 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 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 both publishing and development communication strategies.
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 for 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. Before this appointment she acted as publishing operations director at Techland, where she oversaw the coordination of multiple titles across several platforms.
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 previously worked as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming and development positions at Lightneer, giving him a solid background in both mobile and console development pipelines. Christopher Holtorf is now senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red. Holtorf came from Intrepid Studios, where he served as senior narrative designer and helped craft story‑driven experiences for several high‑profile projects. Amir Satvat has taken the helm as general manager of 1Up Ventures.
Prior to this role he was business development director at Tencent Games and the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a platform that assists job seekers in the gaming sector. "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 announced his departure from Supercell after a seven‑year tenure. He joined Supercell in 2019 as a producer, later becoming head of game production services and eventually 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 for the UK. Derrington previously led public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom, bringing a strong background in regulatory and media relations to the role. Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022, moved to people partner in 2024, and now oversees senior‑level talent strategy across the rapidly expanding publisher.
Shreya Godha earned a promotion to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer on several of the company’s mobile titles. Epic Games named Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins previously held the senior director of global PR position for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, after an earlier stint as marketing lead for media and entertainment at Unity.
Before Unity, she was 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 with the studio. Kuittinen co‑founded Housemarque 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 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 taken the role of community manager at Sega of America. Sangria previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and served as digital strategy and community manager at Undead Labs, giving her a solid foundation in building and nurturing player communities. Emily Rose Chen has been promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard.
Chen originally joined the company in 2020 as a financial analyst, moved into product management, and has now risen to a senior leadership position overseeing one of the franchise’s most prominent titles. Scot McCarron has also been elevated, becoming senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron first arrived at Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises, later taking on the director role before his latest promotion.