Our jobs digest has the biggest moves and promotions from across the mobile games business, all in one spot.
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Embracer: Current deputy CEO Phil Rodgers will be promoted to CEO effective August 1. Rogers, who was previously CEO of Square Enix’s western business for over a decade, also currently serves as CEO Crystal Dynamics – Eidos & Plaion.
He’ll replace current Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors, who will then no longer be part of the executive management team. Wingefors will remain in his role as board member until Embracer’s AGM on September 18, when he’s proposed to be appointed as executive chair of the board.
Embracer group finance director Erik Sunnerdahl has also been appointed as CFO of Coffee Stain Group.
Roblox: Following five years as Paramount CFO, Naveen Chopra will assume the same role at Roblox on June 30. He was also formerly CFO at both Amazon Devices & Services and audio streaming service Pandora.
Unity: After just six months in the role, Steve Collins is stepping down as chief technology officer. A company representative told TechCrunch the former King CTO has decided to leave the engine maker “for personal reasons”.
Playful.AI: Zynga founder Mark Pincus and former Netflix Games VP Mike Verdu have co-founded a new AI startup, pocketgamer.biz reports. Pincus and Verdu are co-CEOs, with Verdu also serving as CFO. The San Francisco, California-based company, which aims to “reinvent game development and game experiences with AI”, has also appointed former Netflix GenAI for games director Richard Sun as chief technology officer.
Ares Interactive: The Austin, Texas-based outfit, which was founded last year by former Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo De Masi, has appointed Gabriel Goldwasser as SVP, performance marketing. He previously spent seven years at Warner Bros. Games, where he was most recently vice president, growth marketing, and seven years at Gameloft, where he was senior director, global user acquisition.
Modma Games: Ex-Rovio art lead and Supercell art director Praveen Dubey has joined the company as CEO and creative director.
Stash: The direct to consumer firm has hired Sagar Jauhari as head of engineering. The former Tesla staff software engineer was most recently senior engineering manager at Instacart.
Former Zynga senior user experience designer Valerie Lo has also joined the company as senior product designer.
Tactile Games: There are five new hires at the Lily’s Garden maker. Former Gram Games product manager Ertuğrul Uyar has been appointed as live ops manager. New level designer Uğurkan Yıldız previously held the same position at MildMania. Ex-Giby Games game designer Hilal Çil has also come on board as a level designer. Frontend engineer Mads Brandt has joined from Process Factory, where he served as lead frontend developer and partner. And new client programmer Mertkan Uzunparmak previously spent four years at Rollic, most recently serving as team lead, SDK.
CrazyLabs: The Coffee Mania and Bus Frenzy maker has appointed Yarden Peled as a senior data analyst. He joins from Tactile Games, where he held the same role, and also previously served as data analyst technical lead at Playtika.
Sky TV/Comcast: Neil McFarland has been appointed head of gaming at Sky TV/Comcast. McFarland joins the media giant having previously led Ustwo Games and ‘web 2.5’ studio First Light.
Epic Games: The Fortnite maker has promoted Jonas Svendsen from senior business operations manager to international strategy director.
Games and Leaves: The start up, which plans to focus on building sports games for mobile, has appointed Antti Kananen as its head of games. He previously held a contractor role as product, monetization design and game design consultant.
