Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019 will take place on October 1st to October 2nd. To give you a taste of what to expect, we'll regularly be publishing interviews with the speakers at the show.

For more details on PGC Helsinki and to book a ticket, head to the website here.

In this speaker spotlight we caught up with Aurelien Merville. Aurelien is the VP of Corporate Development at Phoenix Games, leading the M&A effort and using his 20 years of experience to identify the best studios, products and IPs.

He has expertise from the concept design to the post-release management of mobile, social and online games, with experience on more than three hundred products.

Prior to joining Phoenix Games, he founded and managed Alchemic Dream Inc. (sold to Keywords Studios) and did business development for multiple high profiles studios like Hibernum Inc.

Aurelien is also an advisory board member on companies in the AI/Gaming field: Age of Minds and Insolent Games.

At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019 he'll be part of a panel discussing mergers and acquisitions.

Pocketgamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about your company?

Aurelien Merville: Phoenix Games is a company focusing on M&A, acquiring F2P studios all over the world to allow them to grow and scale.

What does your role entail?

Identifying and evaluating studios and building the relationships with founders. Also, traveling to many conferences, doing business development and following products and the market evolution.

Why did you want to work in the games industry?

I had a passion for video games as a kid. I had no real plan to work in the industry but it just happened.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into the industry?

Persevere and try to identify what you are good at. It is a wide industry with many different roles and many possibilities.

What are your thoughts on the industry in the last 12 months?

I am focusing mainly on the mobile industry and the consolidation is going extremely fast with no clear disruption at the horizon.

What major trends do you predict in the next 12 months?

Consolidation, multi-platforms, alternative ways to do UA. All these topics and more.

How has the games industry changed since you first started?

It became an industry, that's the main change. Powerful companies are leading the market and it is extremely hard to get noticed or to disrupt the market as a new player. I changed too, I started working on PC MMO as community manager and I am now doing M&A in the F2P mobile space, so obviously my view on the industry evolved.

Which part of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki are you most looking forward to?

The pitch and match.