Historically, December is a relatively quiet month for personnel changes and related announcements, but in very lean times (which we can all agree, we are in) struggling companies both private and public tend to look for ways to cut costs to bolster Q4 numbers. Austerity is never a great thing for workers, and with the holidays coming up it’s not a great time to lose your job, but many will (as many already have in this last quarter of the year).
My hope is that you are not one of those people and that wherever you work finds better ways than layoffs to save money before the year’s end.
It’s a relatively quiet week, so we're going to jump right into this week’s moves. - James Fudge.
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Esports:
Neil Walker has been promoted to senior partnerships manager at FNATIC.
Jasmine Skee has been promoted to CEO and Director at Guild Esports.
Guild Esports has appointed Jocelin Caldwell as a non-executive director, replacing Mike Edwards–she is a co-founder of the organization and previously served as its chief operating officer.
Daniel Davis has been promoted to league operations manager for Apex Legends at Electronic Arts.
Justin Rojas has left his role as VP of events at OpTic Gaming (Esports Stadium Arlington).
Jessica Lehmkuhl joins Brazil-based Vivo Keyd Stars as its new BI analyst.
Amir Mirzaee will now serve as the managing director of Berlin-based Shadow Esports–he is also the MD of Bayes Esports.
Turki Al-Obaid has taken on the role of talent manager at Saudi Arabia-based Gamers Hub Media Events. This is in addition to his role at ESL FACEIT Group as PUBG Mobile community manager.
Harry Harrison is promoted to the role of financial accountant at GRID Esports.
Alfie Wright joins Socios Gaming as its new esports partnerships manager.
Top League of Legends player Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) signs a new deal to play with T1 for three more years.
Mark L'Estrange has left Exeter College after more than 16 years at the UK-based university where he most recently served as the course manager of esports.
Gaming:
Caio Martins is promoted to the role of global influencer & events manager at HyperX.
Jeenal Chauhan is exiting her role as the EA development director to join the EA Sports tech team as a development director with game security.
Benjamin Godwin joins Mediatonic Games as its new lead partnerships manager.
Steve Suhy takes on the role of art director at Ripple Effect Studios.
Vlad Muntean rejoins game engine firm Unity as a senior client partner.
Jude Smith joins Apex Legends maker Respawn Entertainment as senior concept artist.
Former Wargaming and 4A Games HR exec Eugenia Chepiga joins Dragon Lake as senior talent acquisition specialist.
Other:
Danielle Riendeau joins GameDeveloper.com as its new editor-in-chief.
Imogen Calypso Mellor leaves her role as features producer at PC Gamer.
Robert Iger returns as CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
Matthew Odell has been promoted to senior account executive at Creative Artists Agency.
Ali Lee has been promoted to the role as director of global brand at Netflix.
SimWin Sports adds former Turner President David Levy to its advisory board.
Varun Kaushal is promoted to product marketing manager of DGX at NVIDIA.
Cydney Billups has been promoted to the role of coordinator of team operations/family services at the Milwaukee Bucks.
Neil Hegde has been promoted to senior director of player marketing & I.D.E.A Lab at the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA).
Cameron "Areztotle" Shelby joins Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis as its new social media marketing consultant.
Chris Alarcon leaves the PGA Tour to join Stand Together Music as its new managing director of venue partnerships.
Terry Lin takes on the role of senior product manager at ByteDance.
Tamara Cruz Tena joins META Group as a junior marketing & communication specialist.
In Other News…
🍄 Nintendo kills Smash esports efforts, TOs blame Pandal Global.
💰 Hangzhou, China, pledges millions for esports development.
✈ Dubai International Airport now has a fancy gaming lounge.
🤝SPORTFIVE's Build a Rocket acquires TwoReach.
⚖ TikTok and Mobile Legends owner ByteDance takes Tencent to court.
🏢 Former Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends devs form a new company.
🎈 EXCEL Esports extends partnership with EE for three years.
🥤 Enthusiast Gaming teams with Netflix.
🚫 NLRB rejects Activision Blizzard's objections to Albany union vote.