Keeping up with the constant flow of hires, promotions, and departures across the global games sector can be a daunting task. To help industry professionals stay informed, we publish periodic round‑ups that capture the most notable personnel moves.
If you have news about a new appointment or a transition within your organization, please forward the name, new title, company, and previous role to newhires@gamesindustry.biz. Natalie Francis has been appointed studio manager of Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment, a role she will assume on 1 October 2026.
Francis arrives with a robust résumé: she most recently served as chief development officer at Avalanche Studios, and before that she led studio operations and development at DICE and held the position of studio operations director at Electronic Arts. "Massive Entertainment has an extraordinary history, built by incredibly talented people and a culture that cares deeply about craft and quality," Francis said. "I’m excited to build on that foundation and help create the conditions for the studio and its people to thrive in its next chapter." General Manager Christoph Hartmann of Creative House 2 added, "Natalie’s extensive experience bringing multidisciplinary teams together around a clear creative and business vision makes her ideally suited to lead Massive into its next chapter. Her track record of delivering ambitious player experiences while linking long‑term strategy with operational excellence provides a strong foundation for the studio and its talented teams moving forward." Riot Games announced that Allie Murdock has been promoted to senior manager of game production.
Murdock previously managed production on the flagship shooter Valorant and, before joining Riot, served as production director at Red Lens Games. Gearbox Entertainment welcomed Kristen Quinn as its new lead sound designer.
Quinn’s background includes stints as audio director, contractor, and consultant at Bonfire Studios, as well as an audio director role at Polyarc, giving her a deep well of experience in crafting immersive audio experiences for games. Benjamin Liu has joined Insomniac Games as lead VFX artist. Liu formerly held the title of principal VFX artist (acting VFX director) at Lightspeed LA, where he oversaw complex visual effects pipelines for multiple high‑profile projects.
Fandom revealed three fresh additions to its executive leadership team, alongside the promotion of a long‑standing veteran. Anita Butler was named senior vice president of design & user research.
Butler’s prior roles include EVP of design and research at Nextdoor, VP of consumer design at Twitter, and chief design officer at Strava, highlighting a career centered on user‑centric product development. Damon Sicore entered Fandom as chief technology officer and head of Fandom Labs, bringing leadership experience from Wikipedia and Mozilla, where he guided the engineering teams behind Firefox, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Peter Scanlon was appointed chief marketing officer, adding executive marketing expertise from Google, Mozilla, and Monks.
Additionally, Daniel Grunwell was promoted to senior vice president of engineering, taking responsibility for Fandom’s engineering and infrastructure organization. "Fandom has an incredible foundation – millions of fans who have spent years building knowledge and communities around the things they love," said CEO Jay Sullivan. "Our opportunity is to build on that and give fans even more ways to connect, discover and participate. Daniel’s long tenure at Fandom brings a deep understanding of our roots and what makes our communities special, while Damon, Pete and Anita bring new perspectives and deep consumer and platform expertise.
Together, we have the right team to build the next generation of Fandom." The New York Times appointed Jonathan Knight as chief games officer. Knight previously served as senior vice president and head of games, overseeing the acquisition and integration of the viral puzzle Wordle.
Scopely saw the return of Chase Shi as vice president and head of game product. Shi originally left Scopely in 2020 after serving as senior product manager, then moved to Jam City as director of product management before taking a director role on Diablo at Blizzard Entertainment. Scopely also announced Jonathan Marcelino as director of product.
Marcelino founded and led the hybrid‑casual studio Ritmo Games, bringing entrepreneurial experience to the role. Berkay Özer was named head of studio at Fomo Games. Özer joined the company in 2022 as a product specialist and later led the product team before departing in 2025 to become product manager at Loom Games. Arrowhead Game Studios welcomed Peter Sydow as head of production.
Sydow’s background includes senior producer positions at Massive Entertainment and PlayerUnknown Productions. Blizzard Entertainment promoted Ryan Ngoon to game designer. Ngoon began as a quest design intern in 2023, progressed to associate game designer in 2024, and now contributes to larger design initiatives. Epic Games added Sarah Johnson as an art producer.
Johnson’s prior experience spans producer roles at Bungie, Secret Dimension, Hangar 13, and Telltale Games, giving her a broad perspective on art production pipelines. Asmodee named Brian Trunk senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas.
Trunk, a partner at Asmodee for over a decade, previously spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, most recently as vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and the Wizards Play Network. He also held senior leadership positions across 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 come together 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." Rovio promoted Wille Miljas to director of product marketing. Miljas, who joined Rovio in 2024 as marketing lead, previously held central marketing director responsibilities and headed marketing at Good Shepherd Entertainment and Redhill Games, as well as senior marketing manager for planning and strategy at Next Games. Behaviour Interactive announced Jameson Durall as senior design director on the upcoming title Blight: Survival.
Durall previously worked at Insomniac Games as an advanced senior game designer on Marvel’s Spider‑Man 2, bringing high‑profile AAA experience to the project. Epic Games promoted Matt Dobill to director of applied AI, a role that also includes senior counsel responsibilities for technology and tools. Unity welcomed Joe Gabriel as senior technical production manager for Android XR. Gabriel’s background includes leading customer and developer success at Niantic Spatial and serving as senior developer relations manager at Niantic.
King announced the promotion of Erik Meurk to senior software engineer. Meurk began as a Unity developer intern in August 2023, became an associate software engineer in February 2024, and has since contributed to multiple live‑service titles. Epic Games promoted Stéfanie Grandchamp‑Dubé to lead UX designer.
Grandchamp‑Dubé joined Epic in 2023 as a senior UX designer after previously holding the same position at Behaviour Interactive. Rebellion hired Jack Anderson as a VFX artist. Anderson’s prior experience includes VFX work at nDreams and Interior/Night. Blizzard Entertainment added David Scarborough as senior manager of EMEA communications.
Scarborough’s résumé 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, spent two years at Meta as a real‑time VFX art specialist, and now returns to her roots. "Coming back to somewhere I know well, in a new role, is a rare kind of privilege," Lopez said.
"After almost four years at Meta building immersive experiences, I hope I can bring the best of that back with me." CD Projekt Red named Magda Marcinkowska production manager in marketing. Marcinkowska previously acted as publishing operations director at Techland. Newzoo hired Linh Lai as accounting assistant after completing a six‑month internship. Lai reflected, "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.
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." Kokoon Games added Tommi Virolainen as senior game programmer. Virolainen previously worked as a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior programming roles at Lightneer. CD Projekt Red appointed Christopher Holtorf as senior quest designer. Holtorf’s earlier role was senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios.
1Up Ventures welcomed Amir Satvat as a general partner. Satvat previously served as business development director at Tencent Games and founded Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a resource that helps job seekers enter the games 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. "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." Supercell announced the departure of Lasse Seppänen after seven years. Seppänen joined as a producer in 2019, later becoming head of game production services and general manager for Supercell London.
He stated, "Now it’s time to follow my passion for creating new game IPs again. I’m staying in the UK, and in 2027 I plan to start my own studio once again – more on that when the time is right." Take‑Two Interactive named Giles Derrington director of global affairs UK.
Derrington previously headed public affairs for TikTok in the United Kingdom. Kepler Interactive promoted Jess Pearce to senior people partner.
Pearce entered Kepler as a people advisor in 2022 and moved to people partner in 2024. PlaySimple Games promoted Shreya Godha to producer after she served as associate producer. Epic Games appointed 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 led marketing for media and entertainment at Unity after a stint at Warner Brothers Games Montreal.
Housemarque co‑founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen stepped down after 31 years. Kuittinen co‑founded the studio in 1995 following the merger of Bloodhouse and Terramarque. He reflected, "Looking back, I feel immensely fortunate.
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 1 July, 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." Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios named Tamara Feiman CEO. Feiman began her career at Lion in 2020 as EMEA business development lead, later becoming publishing general manager. She noted, "I joined Lion six years ago.
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." Sega of America appointed Heather Sangria as community manager. Sangria previously worked as a contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game and as digital strategy and community manager at Undead Labs.
Activision Blizzard promoted Emily Rose Chen to senior product manager for Call of Duty. Chen started at the company as a financial analyst in 2020 before moving into product management. Activision Blizzard also promoted Scot McCarron to senior director of product management for Call of Duty. McCarron originally joined in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises and later served as director of product management on the franchise.