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 the appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to [email protected].
Mike DeLaet | President, Ares Interactive
Ares Interactive has appointed Mike DeLaet as president.
Prior to this role, DeLaet was global head of digital gaming at Mattel – a position he held for just over two years. He was also SVP of strategic partnership at Scopely for two years, joining in 2020.
DeLaet began his career at Sprint in 2007 as head of games. He transitioned to Glu Mobile in 2009 as SVP of global publishing for nearly four years.
In 2013, DeLaet was appointed SVP of worldwide business development and licensing at Kabam, overseeing games including Marvel Contest of Champions and Transformers: Forged to Fight.
DeLaet founded publisher Rogue Games in 2017, and was CEO and chairman until June 2020.
Rob Schonfeld | Chief business officer, Ludeo
Gaming platform Ludeo has appointed Rob Schonfeld as its chief business officer.
“The opportunity to help scale [Ludeo’s] technology and build something entirely new represents the most exciting opportunity in my career,” said Schonfeld.
He was previously global revenue officer at Activision Blizzard. Schonfeld joined the firm in 2012 as vice president, head of global digital and mobile sales. He then became senior vice president of global digital and mobile commerce.
In 2019, Schonfeld was appointed senior vice president of revenue before joining the board of directors in 2022 and becoming global revenue officer.
Stillfront promotes Kieran O’Leary and Jochen Gary
Stillfront has promoted two of its executive employees – Kieran O’Leary and Jochen Gary.
O’Leary has been promoted to EVP growth after joining the company in January 2025 as EVP growth platform. Prior to Stillfront, O’Leary was SVP of live games and chief revenue officer at Gameloft.
He started at Gameloft in 2014 as product managers lead in North America, moving to global products managers lead, global product marketing lead, then product marketing lead before leaving in April 2019 to join Outfit7 as senior director for marketing.
O’Leary worked at Rovio for three years, beginning as director of growth in games then VP of marketing and CCO. He also worked at Forecomm in business development for the US, IBM, and at Ubisoft as international product manager for Watch Dogs.
Gary has been promoted from VP of marketing to chief marketing officer, and will report to O’Leary directly.
His prior role was at Goodgame Studios as vice president of marketing. Gary joined in 2015 as lead marketing controlling, then was promoted to vice president of marketing.
Imogen Calypso Mellor | Social lead, Yrs Truly
Imogen Calypso Mellor has been promoted to social lead at gaming marketing agency Yrs Truly.
Mellor joined Yrs Truly in 2023 as campaign manager. Prior to this role, she worked in journalism starting as a staff writer for PCGamesN, then moving to Ladbible. She was a features producer at PC Gamer, and audience director at The Telegraph.
She also works as a presenter, having hosted GDC in 2021 and has worked with brands including E4, Top Gear, and games such as Disco Elysium.
Andrew Hoffacker | VP head of game production, Annapurna Interactive
Annapurna Interactive has appointed Andrew Hoffacker as VP head of game production.
Hoffacker was previously production director of external games at Netflix. He worked at Riot Games for nearly five years, joining in 2019 as senior producer, becoming director of Riot Forge in 2012.
He also worked at Activision for 12 years in producer roles on Call of Duty, and was a production coordinator at Infinity Ward for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Eva Ryott | Head of live operations, King
King has promoted Eva Roytt as head of live operations.
Ryott began her career at King in 2013 as a data scientist. She was then appointed business performance manager, team lead for analytics, business performance director, and as a senior producer. She left in 2019 to join Meta as a data science manager, a position she held for nearly three years.
In 2022, Ryott rejoined King as senior director, content area lead. She then became VP head of core gameplay for Candy Crush Saga prior to her latest position.
“In this role, I will be responsible for advancing our tooling and technologies to support better and faster decisions in our games – creating cohesive and relevant experiences for our players,” she said.
“With this, I am also transitioning from the Candy Crush game team into our shared tech organisation, serving multiple games across King.”
Jody Zarkos | People and talent lead, Lockwood Publishing
Lockwood Publishing has promoted Jody Zarkos to people and talent lead.
Zarkos joined the company in 2024 as senior talent partner. Prior to this, she was head of HR at Omeda Studios – a position she held for two years. She also worked at Jagex for four years, starting in 2017 as talent acquisition specialist, then human resource specialist and associate HR business partnering.
Ben Board | Head of Unreal Engine games business – Western Europe, Epic Games
Epic Games has promoted Ben Board as head of Unreal Engine games business – Western Europe.
Board joined Epic in 2017 as developer support manager. He moved up to business development manager then director, before becoming head of Unreal Engine games business for Western Europe.
He joined the industry in 1997 at Bullfrog Productions as a programmer, before co-founding Dogfish Entertainment in 2000 where he was also lead programmer.
Board moved to Lionhead Studios in 2022 as lead programmer (scripting), then went on to Team Bondi in May 2005 as lead gameplay programmer on LA Noire. He also worked at Microsoft as European developer account manager between 2008 and 2013.
Jayce Diaz | Principal encounter designer, Gunfire Games
Jayce Diaz has joined Gunfire Games as principal encounter designer.
Diaz started his career in 2005 as a shift leader for Game Crazy, and also co-founded independent gaming news site Glitchy Tasty.
He joined Microsoft in 2011 as a designer, and worked on the campaign design team on Halo 4 and Halo 5, and was a Spartan Ops designer on Halo 4.
Diaz moved to Bungie in 2015 as a designer, then worked as a senior gameplay designer at 343 Industries in 2019. In 2021, he joined ZeniMax Online Studios as senior level designer, then principal level designer in 2022.
Ben Gunstone | CEO, Stainless Games
Stainless Games has appointed Ben Gunstone as CEO, while founder Patrick Buckland has become executive chairman.
Gunstone joined the developer in 2006 as production director, a role he held for nearly 13 years. He moved to GlobalStep in 2019 as UK general manager and then director of business development.
He then became executive producer of the Fishing franchise at Dovetail Games in 2021 before moving back to Stainless Games in 2022 as game director. He was promoted to operations director before becoming CEO.
Gunstone has been in the industry since 1992, working as a hotliner for Nintendo. He then worked in QA and production at SCI Games for ten years, and was senior producer for external production at Sega for three years.
“Ben has been a huge part of our journey over the last 20 years,” said Stainless Games. “Now he’s leading the charge as we continue to create awesome games for our clients, build up our projects, and team up with even more AAA and AA studios as a trusted co-development partner.”
Tim Coupe and Clive Moody join Steel City Interactive
Steel City Interactive has announced the appointment of Tim Coupe as VP of studio and Clive Moody as VP of product development.
Coupe’s prior role was at Electronic Arts as head of studio operations for EA Sports UK. He joined the developer in 2021 as director of product development, and then became head of operations.
Coupe started in the industry as a programmer, before becoming VP of mobile and handheld at Warthog Games in 1999, then moved to EA as development director in 2003.
He was studio development manager at Eurocom for over seven years, before becoming executive producer at Jagex in 2012. Coupe joined Codemasters in 2015 as senior development director, before leaving in 2018 to work at Palringo and Curve Development.
Coupe returned to Codemasters in 2020 as executive producer, becoming director of product development then head of operations.
“My years at EA Sports and Codemasters have helped shape my experience of sports franchises,” said Coupe. “Sharing [Steel City Interactive CEO] Ash Habib’s vision for Steel City Interactive and Undisputed, I believe we will create the definitive boxing video game franchise.”
Moody also worked at Codemasters for over two decades. He left in 2024 as SVP of product development, and has been involved in the development and delivery of multiple franchises.
“What Ash and the team have created is incredible,” Moody added. “The ambition going beyond what’s been achieved to date is genuinely exciting, and too good an opportunity not to be part of helping to shape and deliver.”
Christine Brownell | Senior design director – Games, Lego Digital Play
Christine Brownell has joined Lego Digital Play as senior design director after working at Sumo Digital as director of live ops.
Brownell joined the industry in 2003, working at Blizzard Entertainment as a QA software analyst then quest designer. She moved to NetDevil in 2005 as content designer and lead content designer, then lead world designer at Perpetual Entertainment in 2006.
Brownell worked at EA as senior game designer at Maxis in 2008, before becoming creative director of Playfish in 2011. She was also creative director at Scopely for nearly three years, joining in 2019.
Before joining Sumo Digital in 2024, Brownell was franchise design director at Media Molecule and game director at PlayStation London Studio.
“As someone who’s always believed in the power of play, and who grew up building, storytelling, and imagining things with Lego, this role feels deeply meaningful,” Brownell said.
“I’m also feeling lucky and grateful for the chance to join a team led by Aaron Loeb, someone I’ve had the pleasure of working with before and have huge respect for.”
Matthew Pellett and Holly Cooper appointed new roles at Secret Mode
Secret Mode has appointed Matthew Pellett as platform engagement director and Holly Cooper as head of communications.
Pellett joined Secret Mode in 2022 as PR and communications manager, then PR and communications director in 2024.
He made his start in the industry in 2007 as a staff writer at Xbox World 360 magazine. He was also editor at GamesMaster Magazine and the Official PlayStation Magazine.
Pellett worked at Dead Good Media for nearly four years, starting as media and influencer consultant, then PR account manager and senior PR account manager.
“After 18 years spent in the media, media relations, and marketing realm, I’m mixing things up,” said Pellett.
“I’m delighted to step into a platform engagement director position at Secret Mode, where I’ll be focused on our store pages, first-party platform visibility, digital event and festival participation, and much more besides.”
Cooper joined Secret Mode in 2024 as product marketing manager. In January this year, she was promoted to senior product marketing manager before becoming head of communications.
Prior to Secret Mode, she worked at Frontier Developments as product marketing manager. She also worked at Team17 for almost four years, starting as junior PR and events manager in 2017, before climbing the ladder to PR and events manager then junior brand manager.
Cooper also held positions of field executive and PR executive at Ubisoft.
“I’ve been given an amazing opportunity to jump back into comms as head of communications at Secret Mode,” said Cooper. “I started my industry career in PR and events, and I’m excited to jump back in.
“Huge thanks to Matthew Pellett for trusting me with this incredible team and to the senior leadership at Secret Mode for the opportunity to take this next step in my career.”
Ben Parfitt | UX writer, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Ben Parfitt has joined Sony Interactive Entertainment as a UX writer.
Parfitt has been in the gaming industry since 2005, starting as associate editor at MCV/Develop. He was also a freelance writer, contributing to The Guardian, Kotaku, and GamesIndustry.biz.
In 2018, Parfitt joined Jagex as associate editorial director – a position he held for just over four years. He then became senior web editor at Creative Assembly in 2022, leaving the position in January 2024.
Partfitt returned to freelancing before his latest position at Sony.
