MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Here are the highlights from the recent industry hires and moves, as published in MCV’s December issue.
. Esports team Dignitas has made two senior appointments. Former CSGO pro player Heather Garozzo is the team’s new VP of marketing, having previously been its director of fan engagement for a year and a half. She also worked as in-game director for ESL and Eleague. Meanwhile, esports consultant Maurice Eisenmann has been appointed VP of business development.
. Another month, another series of hires at Hutch. Industry veteran Guy Pearce has been hired as director of brand and marketing, having previously worked at Ubisoft, Codemasters, PlayStation and most recently Jagex, where he helped establish the studio’s new identity as the ‘home of living games’. Also joining Hutch is Ben Hallett, who comes in as server engineer from Firefly Studios. Lastly, Aidan Penzo joins from Sega as QA embedded tester.
. Sumo Digital has appointed Ed Daly as the new studio director of The Chinese Room. Daly, who has 20 years of experience in running studios, is returning to games after working with interactive technology in theme parks. He hopes to “build a team to develop the innovative, original IP The Chinese Room is known for.”
. Former senior account executive at Stature PR Iga Kowacka is now account manager over at Indigo Pearl. She commented: “I am thrilled to join Indigo Pearl at such an exciting time! I look forward to working alongside the amazing team that has delivered so many great campaigns.”
. Exertis has appointed Chris Bale to the newly created position of head of transformation. Reporting to MD Gerry O’Keeffe, he will be responsible for leading operational and financial best practice across Exertis in Europe.
. PCGamesN has two new video presenters: Xbox On alumnus Ben Peter Griffin and Caroline Oakes, formerly at ESL as business development manager and our 2018 eSports Woman of the Year.
. Former editor of both Ask About Games and Develop Will Freeman is The Gaming Economy’s new editor. He sees this new role as “a chance not only to spotlight trends and opportunities in monetisation, ad tech, user acquisition, and more, but also a means to explore the relationship those methods share with games making.” Freeman will also continue his freelance work.
. Capcom USA has appointed Rob Dyer as its new COO. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Dyer has held various leadership roles at Sony, Zynga, Eidos and Crave Entertainment, while his most recent position was as co-founder and CEO of licensed merchandising outlet Fan Kicks.
. After almost three years in marketing at Rising Star Games, Lee Skittrell has joined Koei Tecmo Europe as marketing manager. He previously worked in PR for the likes of Nintendo, 505 Games, THQ and Bastion.
. Sony UK’s head of communications Jo Bartlett has left PlayStation after two and a half years. She’s actually left the games industry altogether, to start a new role in the music industry.
. Rose-Mary Caddick is the latest addition to the PlayStation Access YouTube channel, officially as production assistant at flagship company We Are Reach. She’s better known under the name of Professor Juice – a YouTube channel she created in 2014.
. Following the departure of Will Freeman, Ask About Games has appointed freelance journalist Andy Robertson as its new editor as it renewed a deal with Ukie and the Video Standards Council (VSC). Ukie’s CEO, Dr Jo Twist OBE, said: “The VSC Rating Board and Andy are the perfect expert partners for helping families, carers and educators understand the tools and ways families can really make the most of games as a healthy, fulfilling part of what they do together.”
. Following its acquisition by monetisation firm Admix, VRFocus has made a few changes. Former CEO Kevin Joyce remains at the firm in the role of AR/VR consultant, Oscar Clark has joined as lead evangelist and Peter Graham has been hired as senior staff writer.
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