August 2026's Movers and Shakers: Supercell, Scopely, Xsolla, King, Exmox and more

To keep you up to date with the latest movers and shakers in the mobile games industry, we've put together a regular roundup of the latest hires, promotions and, in some cases, exits.

If you've recently joined a company or bagged a big promotion, or you're an employer that's just made a hire, drop us an email at news@pocketgamer.biz.

Key hires at Xsolla and Exmox

Investor and former Nifty Games CEO Jon Middleton has joined Xsolla as EVP strategic business.

He will continue to work with the games industry in this new role, building on more than 25 years of experience in executive positions across companies like Mad Catz, Eight Cylinders and Nifty Games. He served as CEO of the latter from 2018 to 2025, overlapping with advisor roles at RotoVR, Burgschneider Group and Iron Galaxy Studios.

Middleton has also provided consultancy through Middleton Games.

Upon moving to Xsolla, he posted on LinkedIn: "The calendar is filling up fast, so if you’re heading to Gamescom and we haven’t booked time yet, let’s get together! We can talk games, share ideas, discuss ways to work together, or simply grab a coffee and catch up."

Katharina Gillman has been hired as Exmox's new head of QA, bringing more than two decades of experience in building and measuring software quality.

The new position will see her define Exmox’s QA strategy, drive test automation and grow the team, working collaboratively with engineering. It’s a change that follows more than six years at Visable, where Gillman worked across a range of quality assurance roles.

"To me, quality is about so much more than finding bugs. It’s about collaboration, curiosity, continuous improvement and every now and then discovering that one issue the developer swore ‘couldn’t possibly happen’," Gillman posted on LinkedIn.

"What I’m looking forward to most is working with an amazing team, getting to know every single team member, exchanging ideas and taking quality to the next level together."

Returning and retiring

Michael Olson has returned to livestreaming platform Twitch after four years away, taking on a new position as VP, global business development.

After serving as general manager between 2018 and 2022, Olson departed from the company to join Linktree as president. Since then, he’s taken on other titles and moved to financial platform Tala all before returning to Twitch.

"I'll be leading global business development and joining the executive team. As many of you know, I've spent much of my career focused on empowering creators, and I can't think of a more interesting time to return to Twitch," he posted on LinkedIn.

Warren Spector has retired after a career spanning more than 40 years. From tabletop games in the early 80s to video games from 1989 onward, he’s worked on dozens of projects like Deus Ex and Epic Mickey.

His places of employment have included Disney, EA, Looking Glass, Ion Storm, Otherside Entertainment and more. At Otherside he served as co-founder, chief creative officer and game creative director for the final 10 years of his career.

"Let me cut right to the chase. I'm retiring from game development. At least I think so. I've been here before and changed my mind but this time I'm pretty sure I mean it. I've had a great career," Spector posted on LinkedIn.

Consulting in Türkiye and an Icelandic minster enters games

Lorien Accelerator founding partner and CEO Dilara Kececi has taken on a consultancy role in Türkiye with Plan A Games.

As regional growth and partnerships managing consultant, she’ll be serving as a regional point of contact, developing relationships with investors and working with Plan A’s leadership team to manage and expand the company’s presence.

"In this role, I’ll be managing Plan A’s market development across Türkiye and the broader region, working with studios on sourcing, qualification and contract negotiations while developing strategic partnerships with investors, publishers and other ecosystem stakeholders," Kececi posted on LinkedIn.

"I’m very happy to join a team with deep experience across gaming, data and financing."

Icelandic studio Fenris Creations has appointed former minister Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir as senior director for AI partnerships.

After five years in government, this new position will see Sigurbjörnsdóttir work with AI laboratories, universities, policymakers and strategic partners to study how autonomous agents set objectives. She will also lead a new research initiative focused on autonomous AI systems in Eve Frontier.

"When I left politics, I said I wanted to contribute to the changes AI is bringing," said Sigurbjörnsdóttir.

"Having seen how policy is made and implemented, I know how badly decision-makers need evidence about how these systems actually behave, and this is where that evidence can be produced. I look forward to helping Fenris take the work forward responsibly."

Supercell’s hiring spree

David Edwards has joined Supercell as an animator. Meanwhile, Hans Hirth is serving as a 3D artist, art outsource manager.

Igor Dinis Bernardo has also joined as a quality assurance specialist working on Clash of Clans, while Kimmo Frisk has joined the company as a central QA specialist.

Anni Pyy has also been hired to the studio, bringing experience from Metacore. She will be serving as a contract manager, supporting teams in operational legal matters.

New hires at Scopely, King, Nintendo and more

Scopely has hired Cory Taylor as senior community manager, working on an upcoming title. Albert Casas has been hired to the role of senior talent acquisition.

Jolinne Trygg has joined King as a commercial excellence specialist.

Maddie Richter has joined Nintendo as manager, social media marketing, moving industries but staying in social media after eight years at Alaska Airlines.

Nate Nanzer has departed from Epic Games to start a new chapter at Paramount Games, serving as EVP, head of commercial and marketing.

Thomas Gibson has also departed from Epic Games after seven years with the company, with more to share on his next career step soon.

Tripledot studio Ludios has promoted Ilya Buber to general manager, heading up casual puzzle initiatives.

Testronic has appointed Sonia Kerr as CEO amid an executive shakeup.

Polina Rozenblat has joined Unity as client partner manager.

Jake DeLaet has joined Ares Interactive as a marketing associate.

Frank Rinaldi has departed Riot Games after five years to work as director at Netflix Games.

Tomer Ben Yair is leading the visual direction of Lord of the Board for Beach Bum (Voodoo), hired as an art director.

Olcay Akdağ has joined Voodoo as a playable ads developer.

Donnan Laudeman has joined Rockstar Games as a strategy research associate supporting the company’s Creator Platform.

More hires at ZBD, Tencent and beyond

ZBD has appointed Nathan Solbrandt as SVP of business development.

Aysu Kutbay has moved from Rollic to Grand Games, where she’s working as product manager. Ayşe Nur Tengirşeka has started a position as a 2D game artist.

Ludus Ventures has hired Selim Kaan Topaç as investment analyst intern.

Mustafa Yagiz Gulsun has joined Tencent as casual games product expert.

Homa has hired Antoine Lefebvre as an AI art specialist.

Özge Avcı Karabulut has joined Aream & Co as investment banking analyst.

Yamini Maindola has joined Funcell Games lead user acquisition manager.

Promotions at Plarium, SciPlay, Roblox and more

Rob Hamilton has been promoted to VP, commercial analytics at King, rising to his fourth role in four years at the company.

Plarium has promoted Shachar Shwartz to VP of finance.

SciPlay product analyst Natalie Letzter has been promoted to the role of senior product analyst after four years with the studio.

Tim Fields has stepped down from his COO role at Virtuos.

Scopely’s Tara Durbha has been promoted to associate game designer on Bingo Bash.

Sarah McCue has been promoted to senior manager of global community engagement at Twitch.

Meytar Gadish has been promoted to corporate development principal at Moon Active.

Roblox’s Yulian Kolarov has taken on the role of privacy and security counsel.

Burak Baş has been promoted to studio lead at Babil Studios.

Tencent’s Sutong Jiang has been promoted to staff product manager.

Changes at Nazara and switching from Sensor Tower to AppMagic

Nazara Technologies CEO Nitish Mittersain is stepping down from the role in September, but will remain as managing director.

This change will see Mittersain continue one of his existing roles at the company, having originally become managing director in 2003. Over 26 years he has served as CEO twice.

Meanwhile, Raymond Albaladejo Stauffer is expected to take on the CEO role next, having worked closely with Mittersain over the past year.

"At Nazara, every level completed has opened the way to a more ambitious one. This chapter as CEO now concludes, but there is much more of the journey ahead. l look forward to continuing it as managing director and helping shape what comes next," said Mittersain.

Lauren Dignam has taken on a new role as VP of sales and customer success for AppMagic, following the mobile app market intelligence platform’s acquisition by Sensor Tower.

The move follows six years in multiple account management roles at Sensor Tower, where Dignam most recently served as SVP, account management, helping to build and scale the company’s operations.

"I am really looking forward to lead our global commercial engine focused on building a dedicated, highly scalable SMB offering for all businesses who need Mobile insights. While Sensor Tower traditionally serves medium to large enterprise clients, by leveraging AppMagic's unique and intuitive platform we are opening up world class mobile market intelligence to agile, growing developers and startups worldwide," she posted on LinkedIn.

"Having spent the past two months with my new team I am really impressed by their resilience and go-forward attitude."

Departing Epic and joining Cypher Games

After almost nine years at Epic Games, Ben Board is stepping down and focusing on music. Following a "summer of downtime" he plans to return to the games industry, now approaching 30 years of experience in the sector.

During his years with Epic, Board has served in five positions from developer support manager to business development director of Unreal Engine and Epic Games Store. He has also worked at Microsoft, Boss Alien, Lionhead Studios and Hutch.

"After eight and a half extraordinary years representing Epic to the games industry in the UK and Europe, I've decided it's time for something new. I depart soon and by choice, and with the Unreal Engine logo permanently printed on my soul," Board posted on LinkedIn.

Approaching one full decade in the games industry, Playtika veteran Paulina Arstein has joined Cypher Games as director of game analytics.

In the new role, she’ll be responsible for leading monetisation, game economy and analytics for an AI-native business, building on her experience as a senior director of AI for the past year at Playtika.

Earlier in her career with the Israeli organisation, Arstein served as BA, analytics and DS team leader, senior director of analytics and economy, and more. She also spent more than a year with Jelly Button, Playtika’s games accelerator.

"After an incredible nine-year journey in Playtika, including an unforgettable experience in Jelly Button, I'm excited to share that I'm joining Cypher Games as director of game analytics," Arstein posted on LinkedIn.

"What convinced me wasn't technology - it was the combination of sharp game design, relentless ambition, openness for change and founders with a bold vision for what's next. As simple as that."

Promotions and appointments at Kabam and Lil Snack

Ilaria Di Camillo has been promoted to development director after 2.5 years with Kabam Montreal. She started out as development manager in 2024 where she helped optimise Jira workflows to streamline production and reduce operational friction across teams.

A Women in Games ambassador, Camillo has also worked at Keywords Studios, Apple and Ludia.

"When I started working in the game industry, I could never have imagined that, less than ten years later, I would reach this milestone. This promotion means a great deal to me, both professionally and personally, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone who has trusted me, challenged me, mentored me and helped me grow throughout my journey," she posted on LinkedIn.

Lil Snack has appointed Bill Kang as its new chief operating officer.

A former Supercell and Scopely executive, Kang has joined as Lil Snack looks to accelerate the growth of its daily games business. The company operates more than 20 daily games across platforms like Netflix, Peacock and Reddit, and has claimed to see engagement growth of 500% year-over-year.

Kang previously worked alongside members of Lil Snack's founding team at Scopely.

“After resigning from Supercell, I spent a few months really chewing on what I wanted to do next. I knew I wanted a small, killer team with a strong culture at an early stage, something to actually build alongside founders I trust, not simply inherit," Kang posted on LinkedIn.

Job changes at Wizards of the Coast, Rovio and more

Jars AI co-founders Steffen Holm and Chris Kruger have joined Roblox’s Foundation AI team after helping ship the platform’s mobile-first AI game creation tool Build in New Zealand.

Wizards of the Coast president John Hight will also step down next month, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Mobile veteran Joe Chard has joined Netflix as lead product manager on the Games Product Management team.

Ilona Parshukova is now a legal assistant at Rovio Entertainment.

Alisson Paschoal Hausmann has been promoted to staff mobile developer at Almedia.

New hires at King, Appodeal, Epic Games and more

King has hired Frida Johansson as associate director of engineering in the game economy area. Meanwhile, Malin Öhman has joined as a UX designer on Candy Crush Saga. Cecilia Z has come aboard as a senior game designer, joining the game system team behind Farm Heroes Super Saga.

Kristapor Giragosian has joined Appodeal as chief operating officer, based at the company’s Barcelona office.

Martin Keely has joined Epic Games as the VP and general manager of Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services.

Merve Gürbüz has moved from Agava Games to Rollic, starting a new position as a software engineer.

Product Madness has promoted Dave Bland to VP of product, building on eight years of experience with the company.

İrfan Söğüt has been hired by Joygame Publishing as a junior growth manager.

Carl Cavers has joined co-development studio Vertpaint as a non-executive director and shareholder.

Verve has hired Alessandro Giuliani as its new chief revenue officer.

Andrey Ivashentse has joined The Games Fund as partner, EMEA.

Chris Roberts has joined Chess.com as VP of media and content services.

Ahmet Batuhan Bozkus is now a senior software engineer at Loom Games.