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 gather all the noteworthy moves in one place. If you know of any recent appointments or transitions that belong in this list, please forward the individual's name, new title, company, as well as their previous position 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 associated with Asmodee for more than ten years, initially joining as a partner and climbing the internal ladder.
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 overseeing the Wizards Play Network. During his tenure at Wizards, he also held 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 combine 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. Before this appointment, Scarborough served as senior account director at Brands2Life and headed communications at Inflexion Games.
His résumé also includes senior roles at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver, giving him a broad background in both agency and publisher environments. King has announced that Esther Lopez is returning as a 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 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. She previously acted as publishing operations director on an interim basis at Techland, where she oversaw several key publishing pipelines.
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 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 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 foundation in both mobile and console development pipelines. Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red. Before this, he served as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios, where he crafted storylines for several high‑profile titles.
Amir Satvat has taken the role of general manager at 1Up Ventures. Satvat formerly acted as business development director for Tencent Games and is also the founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), an initiative that helps job‑seekers find positions within 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 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." Satvat 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 tenure.
He joined the company in 2019 as a producer and 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 named Giles Derrington as director of global affairs for the UK. Derrington previously headed public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom.
Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce originally joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022, moved to people partner in 2024, and now takes on a senior leadership capacity within the HR function.
Shreya Godha earned a promotion to producer at PlaySimple Games after serving as associate producer at the studio. Epic Games appointed Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins came from Unity, where she was senior director of global PR for the Games and Made with Unity program. Prior to Unity, she spent time at Warner Brothers Games Montreal as studio lead for game marketing and communications, and began her Unity career in 2018 as marketing lead for media and entertainment.
Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen stepped down after 31 years at the studio. Kuittinen co‑founded Housemarque with Harri Tikkanen in 1995 after merging 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 named CEO of Lion Studios, the publishing arm of Tripledot Studios. Feiman began her career at Lion Studios 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.
She previously worked 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 has been promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard.
Chen began her time at the company in 2020 as a financial analyst, later moving into product management before earning this senior title. Scot McCarron has also been promoted, now serving as senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard.
McCarron joined Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises and later became director of product management for the Call of Duty line before his latest promotion. These announcements reflect a vibrant period of movement and growth across the industry, illustrating how talent continues to circulate, bringing fresh perspectives to established studios and emerging ventures alike.