Ins and Outs – September 2020’s industry hires roundup

Here are the highlights from the recent industry hires and moves, as published in MCV/DEVELOP’s September issue.

d3t has appointed a new art director, Anthony O’Donnell. In joining the growing art team, Anthony will oversee visual development of all products, and will direct and inspire artists to create artwork and continually improve workflows.

Jordan Udko has joined Maestro as executive vice president of revenue. Udko joins after his previous role as executive vice president of commercial partnerships of global esports organisation Cloud9.

Chris Enock, has joined Improbable as head of publishing. Previously at Riot, Enock led the global publishing team that launched League of Legends.

Sarah Burns is the new head of production & operations at Marvelous Europe. Burns joins Marvelous from her previous role at Numskull Games, where she worked as development producer. Burns has also previously held roles at Miniclip, Jagex and
Rising Star Games.

Swipe Right PR has added new members to the team. First, Rory Nicklin joins as an account manager, having previously worked at H+K Strategies working with brands in the entertainment, sport, tech and fitness industries.

Second, Martin Hlousek also joins the team as senior account executive. Hlousek brings a wealth of consumer and tech experience working with top brands including HyperX, Mindbody, Jack Daniels and others.

In addition, Swipe Right has promoted Michael Power to account director to spearhead global campaigns for top clients such as Outright Games as well as charity Help for Heroes.

Still at Swipe Right, Shanika Howell also joins the team as an account executive. Howell joins Swipe Right from Red Consultancy and brings tech, fashion and food experience having worked with big brands such as Adobe and Huawei.

Third Kind Games have appointed Heidi Slee as their new HR manager. Slee has over eight years’ experience in human resources across retail, FMCG, automotive and the industrial services sectors.

Gabriel Zuliani joins Third Kind Games as a programmer and has more than five years experience working with mobile games previously working as a games developer at Playlab Games and Supersolid.

Also Sean Humphreys joins the company as a game designer. He has previously worked as a freelance scripter at Sketchbook Games and a technical game designer at Reach Robotics.

Kieran Price joins the Third Kind Games team as an artist. Price’s role is focusing on environment art assets. After developing his skills within various 3D packages, he heard about Third Kind Games and after seeing the work they were doing, he was inspired to build a portfolio and reach out to them.

Finally, Third Kind Games appointed Maff Evans as a user interface artist in August. He previously held the role of lead artist at Reach Robotics, and director at Leap Interactive.

Mi5 Communications has hired Lisa Dahlgren as PR Consultant, joining from her previous role as editor at Gamereactor EU. She has over ten years of experience in the industry, from retail and distribution to freelance writing.

Mi5 Communications has also recruited Axel Fälth who joins the team as PR consultant. Fälth comes from a communications and PR background, most recently having worked at Gullers Group as a communications consultant in Stockholm.

Splash Damage’s Cinzia Musio has had a promotion this month. Having previously held the title of operations project manager, Musio is now Splash Damage’s first ever diversity & inclusion advisor.

Roll7 has announced their new head of HR and ops, Nisha Minhas. Minhas has previously worked at companies such as Fluidone and Bespoke HR Assistance, where she worked doing consultancy for tech companies.

Roblox has appointed Walmart and TripAdvisor veteran Barbara Messing, as its new chief marketing & people experience officer. Messing will lead all aspects of marketing, communications, and employee experience operations at Roblox.

Pubguard, the ad-quality platform, a subsidiary of the Bidstack Group, has appointed Andy Curran as its CEO. Curran moves from Bidstack where he was responsible for scaling up and aligning the development and commercial teams.

Alan Ngai joins Pubguard as COO, where he will support Curran. Ngai said: “It’s a unique opportunity to help tackle an ongoing issue that has plagued the industry.”