Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures in the video‑game sector can be a daunting task, which is why we gather the most noteworthy moves into periodic round‑ups. If you know of any recent personnel changes that belong in this list, please forward the name, new title, company, and previous role to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Fandom has announced three senior appointments to its executive leadership roster, alongside the elevation of a long‑time veteran.
Anita Butler will serve as senior vice president of design & user research. Butler brings a wealth of experience from her previous stints as executive vice president of design and research at Nextdoor, vice president of consumer design at Twitter, and chief design officer at Strava.
Damon Sicore joins Fandom as chief technology officer and head of Fandom Labs; his résumé includes senior engineering leadership at both Wikipedia and Mozilla, where he oversaw the teams responsible for Firefox, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Peter Scanlon has been named chief marketing officer, adding executive marketing expertise gained at Google, Mozilla, and Monks. In parallel, Daniel Grunwell, a fifteen‑year Fandom veteran, has been promoted to senior vice president of engineering. In his new capacity he will direct the engineering and infrastructure organization, ensuring the platform remains robust and scalable as the community grows.
"Fandom rests on an extraordinary foundation – millions of fans who have spent years curating knowledge and building communities around the things they love," said CEO Jay Sullivan. "Our mission is to expand that foundation, giving fans even more ways to connect, discover, and participate.
Daniel's deep history with Fandom provides an intimate understanding of our roots, while Damon, Peter and Anita bring fresh perspectives and deep consumer‑platform expertise. Together we have the right team to build the next generation of Fandom." Other notable moves include Jonathan Knight’s appointment as chief games officer at The New York Times.
Knight previously served as senior vice president and head of games, where he led the acquisition and integration of the wildly popular Wordle puzzle. Chase Shi returns to Scopely as vice president and head of game product. Shi originally left Scopely in 2020 after serving as senior product manager, then spent time as director of product management at Jam City and later at Blizzard Entertainment, where he directed product management for Diablo. Jonathan Marcelino has been named director of product at Scopely after founding and serving as CEO of the hybrid‑casual studio Ritmo Games.
Berkay Özer steps into the role of head of studio at Fomo Games. Özer joined the company in 2022 as a product specialist and later led the product team before briefly moving to Loom Games as a product manager in 2025.
Peter Sydow has taken the helm as head of production at Arrowhead Game Studios, bringing senior producer experience from Massive Entertainment and PlayerUnknown Productions. Ryan Ngoon earned a promotion to game designer at Blizzard Entertainment after beginning his tenure as a quest‑design intern in 2023 and moving to associate game designer in 2024.
Sarah Johnson joins Epic Games as an art producer, after holding producer roles at Bungie, Secret Dimension, Hangar 13, and Telltale Games. Brian Trunk is now senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas at Asmodee. Trunk, a partner at Asmodee for over a decade, previously spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast in senior commercial and digital‑games leadership positions, including VP of the Wizards Play Network and regional general‑manager roles for EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. "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 a shared love of games, making this move personal and central to how I want to lead." Rovio promoted Wille Miljas to director of product marketing. Miljas, who joined Rovio in 2024 as a marketing lead, previously headed marketing at Good Shepherd Entertainment and Redhill Games and served as senior marketing manager for planning and strategy at Next Games.
Behaviour Interactive named Jameson Durall senior design director on the upcoming title Blight: Survival. Durall’s background includes work as an advanced senior game designer on Marvel’s Spider‑Man 2 at Insomniac Games. Matt Dobill advanced to director of applied AI at Epic Games, while also serving as senior counsel for technology and tools. Unity welcomed Joe Gabriel as senior technical production manager for AndroidXR.
Gabriel previously led customer and developer success at Niantic Spatial and was senior developer‑relations manager at Niantic. Erik Meurk has been promoted to senior software engineer at King.
Meurk began as a Unity development intern in August 2023, became an associate software engineer in early 2024, and has steadily risen through the ranks. Stéfanie Grandchamp‑Dubé earned the title of lead UX designer at Epic Games after joining as a senior UX designer in 2023, following a similar role at Behaviour Interactive. Jack Anderson joined Rebellion as a VFX artist, after holding the same position at nDreams and Interior/Night. David Scarborough moved to Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications.
His prior experience includes senior account director at Brands2Life, head of communications at Inflexion Games, and senior roles at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver. King appointed Esther Lopez as principal VFX artist. Lopez first joined King in 2014 as a senior artist, rose to associate principal VFX artist in 2020, left for Meta in 2022 to work on VR‑AR real‑time VFX, and now returns to King, describing the move as a rare privilege. Magda Marcinkowska became production manager in marketing at CD Projekt Red after serving as acting publishing operations director at Techland.
Linh Lai was hired as an accounting assistant at Newzoo following a six‑month internship, expressing enthusiasm for deeper involvement in finance processes and efficiency improvements. Tommi Virolainen joined Kokoon Games as a senior game programmer, bringing prior experience as a tech programmer at Metacore and senior programming roles at Lightneer.
Christopher Holtorf was appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red, after previously serving as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios. Amir Satvat entered 1Up Ventures as a general partner. Satvat previously directed business development at Tencent Games and founded the community‑focused initiative Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC). He emphasized his desire to help people find jobs in the industry and to work with smaller studios that align with his values.
Lasse Seppänen announced his departure from Supercell after seven years, where he progressed from producer in 2019 to head of game production services and general manager for Supercell London. He plans to launch his own studio in the UK in 2027.
Take‑Two Interactive named Giles Derrington director of global affairs UK, after a stint as head of public affairs UK at TikTok. Jess Pearce was promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive, having joined the company as a people advisor in 2022 and advancing to people partner in 2024.
Shreya Godha advanced to producer at PlaySimple Games after previously serving as associate producer. Epic Games appointed Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins previously held the senior director of global PR role for Unity’s Games and Made with Unity program, and before that worked on marketing for Warner Brothers Games Montreal. Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen stepped down after 31 years.
Kuittinen co‑founded the studio in 1995 with Harri Tikkanen, merging Bloodhouse and Terramarque. He praised the studio’s independent journey and noted that Sami "Haxu" Hakala has taken over as managing director, ensuring continuity. Tamara Feiman was appointed CEO of Lion Studios, a division of Tripledot Studios.
Feiman began at Lion in 2020 as EMEA business development lead, later becoming publishing general manager. She highlighted the collaborative spirit with partner studios that drives millions of players to enjoy their games. Heather Sangria joined Sega of America as community manager, after contract work as a social strategist at One More Game and a digital‑strategy/community role at Undead Labs. Emily Rose Chen was promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard, having risen from product manager after starting as a financial analyst in 2020.
Scot McCarron advanced to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard, after serving as director of product management for the franchise and joining the company in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises. These movements illustrate the dynamic nature of talent flow within the gaming ecosystem, reflecting both the industry's rapid growth and the continual pursuit of fresh perspectives and seasoned leadership across development, publishing, and technology domains.