It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.
If you have new appointments or transitions in your company that belong here, please send the names of appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to [email protected].
Fandom expands executive leadership team
Fandom has announced three new hires to its executive leadership team, alongside the promotion of a 15-year veteran.
Anita Butler has been appointed senior vice president, design & user research. Butler previously served as EVP of design and research at Nextdoor, and was VP of consumer design at Twitter and chief design officer at Strava.
Damon Sicore joins Fandom as chief technology officer and head of Fandom Labs. Sicore held leadership roles at Wikipedia and Mozilla. He led the engineering organisation behind Firefox, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
Peter Scanlon has been appointed chief marketing officer. Scanlon has executive leadership experience from Google, Mozilla, and Monks.
Daniel Grunwell has been promoted to senior vice president of engineering, and will oversee Fandom’s engineering and infrastructure team.
“Fandom has an incredible foundation – millions of fans who have spent years building knowledge and communities around the things they love,” said Fandom 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 expands Jonathan Knight’s role to chief games officer
Jonathan Knight has been appointed chief games officer at The New York Times. Knight previously served as SVP, head of games and led the acquisition and integration of Wordle.
Chase Shi returns to Scopely as VP, head of game product
Chase Shi has returned to Scopely as VP, head of game product.
Shi left Scopely in 2020 as senior product manager. He was then director of product management at Jam City, before moving to Blizzard Entertainment where he worked as director of product management on Diablo.
Jonathan Marcelino | Director of product – Monopoly Go, Scopely
Jonathan Marcelino has been appointed director of product at Scopely. Marcelino previously served as founder and CEO of hybrid-casual game studio Ritmo Games.
Berkay Özer | Head of studio, Fomo Games
Berkay Özer has been appointed head of studio at Fomo Games. Özer joined Fomo Games in 2022, serving as product specialist and product team lead. He left in 2025 to join Loom Games as product manager.
Peter Sydow joins Arrowhead Game Studios as head of production
Peter Sydow has joined Arrowhead Game Studios as head of production. Sydow worked at Massive Entertainment and PlayerUnknown Productions as a senior producer.
Ryan Ngoon | Game designer, Blizzard Entertainment
Ryan Ngoon has been promoted to game designer at Blizzard Entertainment. Ngoon joined Blizzard in 2023 as a quest designer on an internship, before becoming an associate game designer in 2024.
Sarah Johnson | Producer, Epic Games
Sarah Johnson has been appointed as an art producer at Epic Games. Johnson previously worked at Bungie, Secret Dimension, Hangar 13, and Telltale Games in producer roles.
Asmodee appoints Brian Trunk as senior vice president, Route to Market for the Americas
Brian Trunk has been appointed senior vice president of Route to Market for the Americas at Asmodee.
Trunk has been a partner at Asmodee for over a decade. Previously, he spent 17 years at Wizards of the Coast, most recently as vice president of commercial, digital games revenue, and the Wizards Play Network.
At Wizards of the Coast, Trunk held several leadership roles, including vice president and general manager 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,” said Trunk. “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.”
Wille Miljas promoted to director of product marketing at Rovio
Rovio has promoted Wille Miljas to director of product marketing. Miljas previously served as central marketing director, having joined the company in 2024 as marketing lead.
Miljas was head of marketing at Good Shepherd Entertainment and Redhill Games, and senior marketing manager for planning and strategy at Next Games.
Jameson Durall joins Behaviour Interactive as senior design director on Blight: Survival
Behaviour Interactive has appointed Jameson Durall as senior design director on Blight: Survival. Durall previously worked at Insomniac Games as an advanced senior game designer on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Matt Dobill | Director of applied AI, Epic Games
Matt Dobill has been promoted to director of applied AI at Epic Games. Dobill also serves as senior counsel on technology and tools.
Joe Gabriel | Senior technical product manager, Unity
Joe Gabriel has joined Unity as senior technical production manager for AndroidXR. Gabriel previously served as head of customer and developer success at Niantic Spatial, and was senior developer relations manager at Niantic.
Erik Meurk | Senior software engineer at King
Erik Meurk has been promoted to senior software engineer at King. Meurk joined King as a Unity developer intern in August 2023, becoming an associate software engineer in February 2024.
Stéfanie Grandchamp-Dubé | Lead UX designer, Epic Games
Stéfanie Grandchamp-Dubé has been promoted to lead UX designer at Epic Games. Grandchamp-Dubé joined Epic in 2023 as a senior UX designer, previously working at Behaviour Interactive in the same role.
Jack Anderson | VFX artist, Rebellion
Jack Anderson has joined Rebellion as a VFX artist. Anderson previously worked in the same position at nDreams and Interior/Night.
David Scarborough joins Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications
David Scarborough has joined Blizzard Entertainment as senior manager of EMEA communications.
Scarborough was previously senior account director at Brands2Life and head of communications at Inflexion Games. He also held senior positions at Improbable and Koch Media/Deep Silver.
Esther Lopez | Principal VFX artist, King
King has appointed Esther Lopez as principal VFX artist.
Lopez joined King in 2014 as a senior artist and was promoted to associate principal VFX artist in 2020. In 2022, she left to join Meta as a real-time VFX art specialist in VR-AR.
“Coming back to somewhere I know well, in a new role, is a rare kind of privilege,” said Lopez. “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 | Marketing production manager, CD Projekt Red
Magda Marcinkowska has been appointed production manager in marketing at CD Projekt Red.
Marcinkowska previously served as acting publishing operations director at Techland.
Linh Lai | Accounting assistant, Newzoo
Linh Lai has been appointed 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,” said Lai.
“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 | Senior game programmer, Kokoon Games
Tommi Virolainen has joined Kokoon Games as a senior game programmer.
Virolainen was previously a tech programmer at Metacore and held senior game programming and development roles at Lightneer.
Christopher Holtorf | Senior quest designer, CD Projekt Red
Christopher Holtorf has been appointed senior quest designer at CD Projekt Red.
Holtorf previously served as senior narrative designer at Intrepid Studios.
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Amir Satvat joins 1Up Ventures as a general partner
Amir Satvat has joined 1Up Ventures as general partner. Satvat previously served as business development director at Tencent Games.
He is also the founder and leader of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), a resource of helping people find jobs in 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,” said Satvat. “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 leaves Supercell
Lasse Seppänen has announced his departure from Supercell after seven years. Seppänen joined the company as a producer in 2019, holding several senior roles including 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,” said Seppänen. “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.”
Giles Derrington joins Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive has appointed Giles Derrington as director of global affairs UK. Derrington previously worked at TikTok as head of public affairs UK.
Jess Pearce | Senior people partner, Kepler Interactive
Jess Pearce has been promoted to senior people partner at Kepler Interactive. Pearce joined Kepler as a people advisor in 2022, moving to people partner in 2024.
Shreya Godha | Producer, PlaySimple Games
Shreya Godha has been promoted to producer at PlaySimple Games. Godha was previously associate producer at the developer.
Kelly Ekins joins Epic Games as director of communications
Epic Games has appointed Kelly Ekins as director of communications. Ekins previously worked at Unity as senior director of global PR in its Games and Made with Unity Program.
Ekins joined Unity in 2018 as marketing lead for media and entertainment after her tenure at Warner Brothers Games Montreal as studio lead for game marketing and communications.
Housemarque co-founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen steps down
Housemarque co-founder and managing director Ilari Kuittinen has 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,” said Kuittinen. “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 appointed CEO of Lion Studios
Tamara Feiman has been appointed CEO at Tripledot Studios’ Lion Studios. Feiman previously served as publishing general manager, having started her career at Lion Studios in 2020 as EMEA business development lead.
“I joined Lion six years ago,” said Feiman. “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 | Community manager, Sega of America
Heather Sangria has joined Sega of America as appointed community manager. Sangria previously served as contract social strategist and community lead at One More Game. She also worked at Undead Labs as digital strategy and community manager.
Emily Rose Chen | Senior product manager, Call of Duty, Activision Blizzard
Emily Rose Chen has been promoted to senior product manager for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. Chen previously served as product manager, having joined as a financial analyst in 2020.
Scot McCarron | Senior director, product management, Call of Duty
Scot McCarron has been promoted to senior director of product management for Call of Duty at Activision Blizzard. McCarron previously served as director of product management on Call of Duty, having joined Activision in 2018 as product marketing manager for emerging franchises.