Former Warner Bros. Discovery Executive Producer Joins a Game Company
People on the Move - Nov. 18, 2022
Either I’m losing my touch or there just weren’t that many announcements of new hires this week (I have consolidated this week’s lists into one as a result). Perhaps it’s the upcoming holiday in the U.S. (early Thanksgiving greetings to my American readers - we won’t be doing a newsletter next week due to the holiday and my birthday) or maybe people just can’t shake the feeling that it’s one minute to midnight on the old doomsday clock as more information comes to light on FTX (YIKES), we watch Elon Musk systematically dismantle Twitter in real-time (I’m not going to Mastodon, I don’t like it, sorry!), or we lament the thousands of layoffs that happened this week in the tech sector. Thank God it’s almost the weekend! - Onto this week’s big stories, and thanks for hanging in there with me. - James Fudge.
EA VP of Esports Leaves Company
Brent Koning, who spent the last six years at Electronic Arts facilitating its competitive gaming efforts (with a focus mostly on FIFA), has announced his exit from the company. Koning most recently served as the vice president of esports where he oversaw EA's portfolio of esports titles including Apex Legends, FIFA, and other titles from the company's London offices. More details here.
Majority of Motorsport Games Board Members Resign
Game industry vet Peter Moore (who is currently working at game engine developer Unity) and two other independent directors resigned from the racing sim game maker over disagreement with a major shareholder. Currently the company has no independent directors, which is a requirement of publicly listed companies on the NASDAQ. More details here.
FaZe Clan Chief Strategy Officer Kai Henry Resigns
A new SEC filing reveals that FaZe CSO Kai Henry left the company earlier this month. Henry joins several other high-profile execs that have left the company in recent months including Xavier Ramos and Bo Wolfe–both of whom joined Interscope Records. More details here.
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Anisah Munim joins Fnatic as its new esports operations coordinator.
Netflix exec Jeremi Gorman joins the GameSquare board of directors.
Chrissy Kelleher has left Game-focused PR firm FortySeven Communications to join Netflix Games as its new manager of games communications.
Justin Kubiak leaves his role as head of games partnerships at Samsung Electronics America to lead mobile licensing at PlayStation Studios.
Former Eidos-Montreal COO Andréane Meunier joins Rovio Montreal as head of studio.
Angelina Chernyak has joined Riot Games - she has done freelance illustrator and concept art work for Blizzard, Epic Games, and Riot in the past.
Emil Heaton Christensen has been named CEO of Godsent.
Aemee Doherty has left Kabam to join Apple to tackle the role of business development, games.
Katy Eyre has left Team17 to join Big Purple Capture as creative lead.
Chloe Laura has been promoted to head of international marketing & global communications at HyperX.
Lorena González has left Saber Interactive to join CD Projekt as a sound designer.
Anna Sahákian has been promoted to business administration lead at VBET.
Rachael Cross is promoted to concept artist II at Riot Games.
Sportskeeda Founder and CEO Porush Jain announces his exit from the company.
Michael Rüsz is now head of tournament operations at ESL FACEIT Group, a position he quietly took on in September.
Jasmine McGee takes on the role of director of league partnerships at Overtime–she left Fan Controlled Football in July.
Former Warner Bros. Discovery Executive Producer Sheloman Byrd joins Kuala Lumpur-based game developer Streamline Studios as chief operating officer.
Danielle Riendeau has been named editor-in-chief at GameDeveloper.
In Other News
🛑 NetEase and Activision Blizzard can not agree on deal, all games shutting down in China in January!
🤗 Riot and Ubisoft cooperate to squash toxicity in their respective games.
💰100 Thieves loses CashApp as a naming partner.
👓 Former Softbank and Facebook execs form NFT startup.
🐓 Elon Musk ultimatum leads to mass resignations at Twitter.
🍺 Qatar bans beer sales at Bud-sponsored World Cup stadium.