Gaming Industry Sees Widespread Leadership Changes
Several key players in the gaming industry have made significant career moves, reflecting a dynamic shift in leadership and expertise. At Scopely, Hamed Safaei has joined as a senior game engineer for Monopoly Go, relocating from Iran where he previously worked at Karizma Game Studio and Medrick FZE. Luca Colonnelli has also started as a product manager in Barcelona, part of Scopely’s MBA product leadership rotational program, after working at Dream One Project.
Supercell has welcomed Antoine Madre as a game lead, transitioning from his role as product lead at mo.co. Patrick Williams has joined as global communications strategist, bringing over four years of experience from The Romans agency. Nafees Ahsan starts as a game researcher intern, having previously worked at Nokia.
Over at Google, Apollo Lee has moved from Amazon to lead strategy and operations for Google Play Games. Louis Evans has been promoted to team lead for apps and gaming publisher solutions engineering, following his work with AdMob mediation tests and migrations. Roblox has hired Derek Yang as director of product management, who previously served as group product manager at Discord.
Tripledot Studios has appointed Kerim Figanioglu as senior product manager, formerly the product lead at Ruby Games Studio. Ozan Demirel has moved from TapNation to Miniclip, where he is now a senior game designer. Jess Seaton joins Playtika as retention manager, bringing eight years of experience, most recently from Zynga.
Mac Byczynski is BoomBit’s new VP of business development and global partnerships, maintaining his role at AppLifters. Miikka Lindgren has transitioned from Sandsoft Games to Neon in San Francisco, taking on the role of VP of strategic partnerships. Johanna Cranston is Trailmix’s new senior game artist, previously a 2D artist at Supersolid, while Ayşe Ersavaş has been promoted to product specialist at Grand Games, continuing her studies in industrial engineering at Boğaziçi University.