Big Fish Games appoints Larry Plotnick as president | Jobs Roundup: May 2022

Meanwhile Thunderful hires Lennart Sparud as its new CFO, Genvid appoints Andrew Schneider as president, and NetEase Games hires David Wilson as director of PR for Europe

Feature by GamesIndustry.biz Staff Contributor

Published on May 24, 2022

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

If you have new appointments or transitions in your company that belong here, please send the names of the appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to newhires@gamesindustry.biz.

Larry Plotnick | President, Big Fish Games

Video game publisher Big Fish Games announced Larry Plotnick as its new president.

The company said that he will oversee a new push to create new titles for the casual game market.

Plotnick brings with him an over 30 year career of experience, he most recently was general manager of gaming for Amazon Prime. He was with the company for 11 years.

"When it comes to building great businesses, I believe it always starts with good people and a great culture, where the whole team buys into a vision and can then prioritize the things that really matter," said Plotnick.

"I am humbled to be able to work with the incredible and passionate team at Big Fish and look forward to continuing to improve and deliver on the experiences within casual games."

Lennart Sparud | CFO, Thunderful

Video game publisher Thunderful announced that it's named Lennart Sparud as its new chief financial officer.

He will succeed Anders Maiqvist in the role, whom will be shift focus to the company's M&A activities.

Prior to this new position, Sparud served as chief financial officer at various companies such as Hexatronic, Salinity AB, and Atlas Design Group AB.

"Lennart joins us with long and solid experience from running listed growth companies," said Thunderful CEO Brjánn Sigurgeirsson.

Andrew Schneider | President, Genvid Entertainment

Genvid hires Andrew Schneider as both its new president for its entertainment division and chief marketing officer of its parent company.

Throughout his career he's served as senior vice president of marketing at Disney streaming services and helped launch the Disney+ and ESPN+ services.

He also held a variety of roles across companies such as Sony, NBC, and Tegna.

"Andy's deep experience in streaming, games, and entertainment will be invaluable in his two mission-critical roles as we continue to expand both sides of our business," said Genvid CEO and co-founder Jacob Navok.

"Andy will be instrumental in helping us fulfill our vision of launching all-new experiences that merge lean-back entertainment with lean-in, interactive content."

David Wilson | Director of public relations Europe, NetEase Games

Chinese gaming firm Net Ease appoints PlayStation alum David Wilson as its new director of public relations for Europe.

Wilson worked with PlayStation for 20 years and his most recent role was director of communications.

"This is a fantastic time to be joining NetEase Games and I'm very excited about it," Wilson told mobilegamer.biz in the announcement of his role.

"The potential for NetEase in the West is incredible. NetEase has a very healthy attitude and ambition towards the games business, a great ethos for its developers, and, of course, fantastic products."

Jeppe Kønig | Head of publishing, Funday Factory

Former vice president of publishing at Joypac, Jeppe Kønig joins Funday Factory as it's new head of publishing.

Through out his career in games he's also served as director of publishing at Kiloo, he's been with the company for nearly nine years.

Kønig also founded Jay Bird Games and has been an advisor to various company over the years as well.

"We are extremely happy to welcome Jeppe Kønig as our new Head of Publishing...At Funday, Jeppe is going to play a key role in getting Funday to the next level," the company said in a Linkedin post announcing his hiring.

Nir Patel | COO, GameStop

Video game retailer GameStop announced that it's named Nir Patel as its chief operating officer.

He will begin his new position at the end of the month.

Prior to this new role with GameStop, Patel was serving as CEO of American department store chain Belk.

"He has approximately two decades of experience in operations, merchandising, supply chain, and retail and store operations," the company said.

Throughout his career he's had leadership roles at companies such as Kohl's, Land's End, and Target.

Kate Dollarhyde | Freelance

Senior narrative writer at Obsidian Entertainment, Kate Dollarhyde announced that she's departed from the company.

Dollarhyde has worked on projects such as Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, Outer Worlds, and Avowed.

"After five amazing years at Obsidian, I'm leaving the studio to pursue my personal creative endeavors," she said on Twitter.

"This is my last week with the team. I'm so grateful to the many brilliant designers I've been lucky to learn from, and to the dear friends I've made here. Thank you all."

Jeremy Bondy | CEO, Liftoff

Jeremy Bondy announced that he was named CEO of Liftoff Mobile, succeeding Mark Ellis.

Before taking on this new role, Bondy was CEO of mobile advertising platform Vungle. He was with the company for seven years before it merged along with Liftoff in 2021.

"Today, I am honored to share that I will be taking the role as Liftoff Mobile CEO," he said in an LinkedIn announcement.

"With Liftoff now operating as the parent brand to a unified family of technologies and teams (Vungle, JetFuel, TreSensa, and GameRefinery), I am excited about the road ahead and I look forward to growing with the Liftoff family and all of our partners every step of the way."

Laura Teclemariam | Director of Product Innovation, Netflix Games

Laura Teclemariam was recently appointed as director of product innovation for Netflix's video games division.

Throughout her over 17 year career, she's held various roles and worked at companies such as EA, Warner Bros, and Glu Mobile.

Prior to this new position, she served as director of product innovation for Netflix's animation studio.

"I'm happy to share that I'm starting a new position as director of product innovation at Netflix in video games", she said announcing her new role on LinkedIn.

Tim Lewinson | Studio Operations Director, Respawn Entertainment

Tim Lewinson was recently promoted to studio operations director at Respawn Entertainment.

The long-time game designer has served in a number of leadership roles across various companies.

Lewinson had worked at gaming firms such as Activision, Disney, and Relic Entertainment.

Before working at Respawn he was development director at EA, having worked on Star Wars and Plants vs Zombies.

Jake Perlman-Garr | Global Head of Corporate Development, Riot Games

Jake Perlman-Garr was recently promoted to global head of corporate development at Riot Games.

He brings over 13 years of expertise as an investor, advisor, and mentor in startups.

Perlman-Garr will be responsible for all investments on behalf of the League of Legends maker.

In addition, he will oversee Riot Games' Underrepresented Founders program, meant to aid game companies founded by leaders from marginalized communities.

Catarina Macedo | Project Lead on Destiny 2, Bungie Studios

Catarina Macedo was recently hired as project lead on Destiny 2 expansions at Bungie Studios.

Macedo joins the developer after serving as manager of production/lead product manager at Riot Games.

She formally announced her new role on Twitter.

"I am a new project lead for Destiny 2 expansions, and it honestly feels like a dream," she said.

"I absolutely cannot wait to work with the team, in a game that I so deeply love, in a company that I've spent the last 20 years admiring."

Angelina Park | Audio Producer, PlayStation Studios

Angelina Park joins PlayStation Studios as an audio producer for its music division.

The career musician has worked with Ubisoft as well as worked on the music department of various films and movies over the years.

Park announced her new position with the platform holder on social media.

"Today marks my first day at PlayStation Studios as Audio Producer for the music team, she said."

"It's taken a lot of hard work to reach this point, and I'm so excited for the future. S/o to all of my friends & family who make me feel so well-supported and loved. You know who you are."

Heather Gearreald | Director Of Quality, Turn 10 Studios

Heather Gearreald is named director of quality at Turn 10 Studios, the developer of the Forza franchise.

Gearreald joins the racing sim maker after serving as software development manger at Nintendo.

She was with the company for nearly five years prior to her new position.

"Start your engines!! I'm excited to announce that I'm shifting gears and joining Microsoft Xbox Game Studios as the Director of Quality at Turn 10 Studios - Forza Motorsport series [and] Horizon!," she said making the announcement on LinkedIn.

Four new hires | Theorycraft Games

Guillaume Delbarre, Willy Chen, Kévin Le Moigne, Andrew Yip

Game studio Theorycraft Games announced a group of new hires which includes:

Guillaume Delbarre, who will now serve as an environmental concept artist, prior to this he was a freelance artist that worked for Wonderstorm and Phoenix Labs and Theorycraft.

Willy Chen joins as senior software engineer, he served in the same role at Mountaintop Studios and Riot Games R&D on Project L.

Kévin Le Moigne is hired for the position of world-building concept artist, prior to coming aboard Le Moigne was both lead matter painter and art supervisor on Arcane.

Andrew Yip rounds out the recent job hires as lead game systems designer. Before joining Theorycraft, Yip was game Director for Riot Games' Legends of Runeterra.

Paul Bland | CFO, Curve Games

Former Activision Blizzard senior vice president Paul Bland has joined Curve Games as chief financial officer, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal.

Bland spent over 15 years at Activision, having previously worked at EA for over a decade, rising to director of financial planning.

"It's an incredibly exciting time to be joining Curve as Chief Financial Officer," said Bland. Curve Games has built a magnificent team of industry experts with a proven track record of publishing excellent content.

"I am looking forward to working closely with [CEO] John Clark and supporting the leadership team with its continued growth trajectory."

Molly Mason-Boulé | Global head of development studios, Riot Games

League of Legends firm Riot Games has hired Molly Mason-Boulé as its new global head of development studios.

She joins from Electronic Arts where she spent 18 years, most recently as VP of production and operations for EA Studios. Prior to her time at EA, she worked at various film, TV and visual effects firms, including DreamWorks.

In this role, she will be responsible with expanding Riot's international footprint and reaching talent in key markets, as well as managing current studios in Seattle, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. She will report to John Doyle, COO of Riot's games business.

"I'm incredibly energized to join Riot at a time of such growth and transformation," Mason-Boulé stated. "To be a part of advancing Riot's bold vision for the future - becoming the most player-focused game company in the world while expanding our universes for players - is extremely inspiring. I look forward to the journey as we accelerate Riot into its next phase of scale and growth."

Mattias Engström | Game Director, Crytek

Known as the game director for IO Interactive's acclaimed Hitman 3, Mattias Engström has now joined Crytek to take the lead on its biggest upcoming title.

The developer and game engine provider announced the hire via Twitter, revealing that Engström will be game director for the next entry in the Crysis series, currently under the working title of Crysis 4.

Engström spent almost eight years working at IO Interactive in various positions on the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy.

Prior to this, he spent just shy of a decade working at Tom Clancy's The Division studio Massive Entertainment, focusing on mission and level design, and has also worked as a senior designer at UK studio Splash Damage.

Bastiaan van Bentum | Music Supervisor, Guerrilla Games

Having previously worked with the Horizon studio as both an intern and a freelancer, Bastiaan van Bentum has officially joined Guerrilla Games as a music supervisor.

Van Bentum announced his new role via Twitter.

He has already contributed to the studio's best-selling 2022 hit Horizon: Forbidden West as an additional music supervisor in a freelance capacity, and will now work alongside fellow music supervisor Lucas van Tol.

In the past, he has contributed voice effects work to the soundtrack for The Pathless.

Joe Yuan | Investment Director, Hiro Capital

London-based VC firm Hiro Capital has recruited Joe Yuan to help lead its expansion into other territories as investment director for North America.

Yuan leaves his role as director of corporate development and strategy at Activision Blizzard, where he led the publishing giant's M&A and internal strategy.

He has previously worked a TikTok on its gaming monetisation efforts, and was an early-stage investor at Greycroft, specialising in gaming, esports, and virtual and augmented reality.

At Hiro, he will lead the venture capital firm's efforts in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"We're thrilled to welcome Joe into the Hiro family," said founding general partner Luke Alvarez. "Joe's wealth of knowledge and a keen eye for talent will help keep Hiro at the forefront of gaming's next class of success stories."

Megan Farokmanesh | Senior Writer, Wired

Axios reporter Megan Farokmanesh will be joining Wired later this month as a senior writer.

Farokmanesh currently co-writes the Axios gaming newsletter alongside Stephen Totilo. She has also previously worked for The Verge.

Announcing her new role via Twitter, Farokmanesh said she's "beyond thrilled to cover games for a publication I've dreamed about working at for over a decade, with such an incredibly talented team."