Women in Games Awards: Meet The Judges

The judging panel for the Women in Games Awards has been announced, with leading executives from across all sectors of the UK games industry voting on these special accolades.

The judging panel will choose the Top 30 Women in Games. They will also vote on the winner for each of the special Women in Games Awards, namely Rising Star, Businesswoman of the Year, Creative Impact, Unsung Hero, Campaigner and Outstanding Contribution of the Year.

The judging panel comprises:

Kim Parker Adcock – Founder and MD, OPM Jobs

Adcock launched OPM 18 years ago, having worked in the industry since 1992 in distribution and recruitment. Since then she has grown OPM from a one-woman-band in a loft conversion office on a borrowed chair, to the successful internationally acclaimed company that it is today.

Chris Dring – Editor, MCV

Dring joined MCV’s publisher NewBay Media (formerly Intent Media) in 2007 and became editor in 2013. He regularly writes games for The Observer and serves as a GamesAid Trustee.

Ian Goodall – Managing Director, Aardvark Swift

Goodall began as a recruiter for Aardvark in 2000 and now owns and manages the successful recruitment business, which works across the games, toys and licensing sectors. Aardvark has been hailed for introducing such as its Grads in Games and Search for a Star schemes.

Julia Hardy – Journalist & Presenter

Hardy has recently been announced as the presenter of Radio 1’s new monthly video games show and has a great deal of experience in hosting TV shows and events. Her CV includes presenting duties for the BAFTA Games Awards for Challenge TV, hosting the Worldwide Minecraft Convention, presenting Videogame Nation and reporting on gaming and technology news for Sky.

Gabrielle Kent – Deputy Head, Games Development, Teeside University

Kent is also director of the Animex Festival and author fo the Alfie Bloom series of children’s books. While studying Illustration in 1997, Kent undertook a placement working on Shadowman at Acclaim and realised her future lay in games. After graduating, she joined the Pitbull Syndicate, going on to develop car racing titles for Accolade, Infogrammes, Atari and Midway. Following this, Kent spent several years on the committee for the world’s first Women in Games conference. She was received the Ambassador award in the 2015 Women of the Year awards.

Ian Livingstone – Vice Chair, UKIE

A founding father of the UK games industry, Livingstone’s current roles include:

Founder and Chairman of the Livingstone Foundation, Chairman of Playdemic, Chairman of Midoki, Chairman of Sumo-Digital, Chairman of PlayMob, Chairman of Antstream, Chairman of The Secret Police, Chairman of Flavourworks, Vice Chair of UKIE, Patron of Creative Skillset, a Member of the Creative Industries Council, Non-executive director of Creative Industries Federation, Non-executive director of Creative England, Non-executive director of Young Rewired State, GamesAid Trustee, Executive Advisory Board Member of GameCity, and Adviser to the British Council.

Jenny Richards – CEO, Women in Games (WIGJ)

Richards was joint CEO of Gremlin Group PLC and presided over its sale to Infogrames/Atari in 1999.She was the Chair of the Board of Governors at GamesAid sponsored, Paddington Academy for six years and she has worked for a number of diverse companies including digital mobile marketing agencies as a non-executive director. Her role as CEO of Women in Games sees her work tirelessly to promote females in the games industry, as well as encourage young women to the business.

Julie Man – Managing Director, Marjacq Man

Once named ‘the friendlyface of EA’, Julie Man’s career reads like a who’s who of the games industry. Starting out working at Philips and the launch of the CD-I, she went on to hold developer-focused roles at Virgin, EAand Activision.

Since then she’s managed publishing relationships with studios including Lionhead and Creative Assembly, before founding her own agency Marjacq Man, which aims to uphold and fight for the rights of new developers. She was the winner of the Women in Games Creative Impact awards in 2015.

Andy Payne – Board Member, UKIE

Another veteran of the business, Payne Chaired and led UKIE from 2005 to 2015. He is currently Chairman at AppyNation and a Partner at Gambitious and was formerly CEO of Mastertronic.

Margaret Pearson – Managing Director, Centresoft

CentreSoft’s Margaret Pearson is an industry veteran in every sense of the word. Starting out at Nintendo UK in 1987, she joined Philips Media – and when that company bought LeisureSoft, Pearson was introduced to the world of distribution.In 1999 she joined CentreSoft and has since helped launch three PlayStation consoles and collected multiple awards for the distributor’s achievements.She picked up the trophy for Pioneer in last year’s MCV Women of the Year awards.

Caroline Stokes – Founder, FORWARD

With 23-years of international experience in digital, Stokes founded FORWARD to provide a Human Capital Solutions oriented approach to executive and senior-level headhunting assignments, career advancement and leadership development.She is a Certified Executive Coach and a member of the International Coach Federation.

Dr Richard Wilson – CEO, TIGA

Wilson was previously Director of Communications at the Royal Academy of Engineering (2006-2008). Prior to this, Richard was Head of Business Policy at the Institute of Directors (1998-2006), one of the UK’s leading business representative bodies. At the Institute of Directors (IoD) Richard played a key part in developing the IoD’s policies and representing the membership vis-a-vis Government, the media and other interested third parties.

The Women in Games Awards will take place on May 19th at the Hamyard Hotel, London. Tickets are priced at just 49 and are available by clicking here.

A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact Lesley McDiarmid or Conor Tallon to find out more.