News

15-year old becomes Supercell CEO for a day as part of #GirlsTakeover campaign

Ilkka Paananen steps aside as part of scheme to promote equal opportunities across the world

15-year old becomes Supercell CEO for a day as part of #GirlsTakeover campaign

A 15-year old girl called Sonja Korpelainen from Plan International Suomi has taken over as the CEO of Supercell for a day as part of the worldwide #GirlsTakeover initiative.

The campaign, taking place today on October 11th, is part of the International Day of the Girl and aims to put girls into the shoes of the top leaders around the world. This includes presidents, mayors, head teachers, business leaders and more.

The scheme is taking place in 60 countries with more than 600 takeovers, with the aim of promoting equal opportunities.

Super opportunity

Finnish developer Supercell, known for hit mobile games such as Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, has agreed to take part, with CEO Ilkka Paananen stepping aside for the day.

“We wanted to participate in Girls Takeover because if I just think about the games industry and game development specifically, we have this problem that it’s very male dominated,” said Paananen.

“There are very few females working on actual game development.”

He added: "Having talked to Sonja today it became very clear that young girls don’t even think about games as a potential career choice. I think it’s up to companies like Supercell and others, like all of us game developers, we just need to get the word out and we have to find different ways to increase awareness and really promote game development as a viable career choice.”

You can watch a video from Supercell about the initiative below.


Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.