July 2026's Movers and Shakers: Xbox, Rovio, Paramount Games, Stillfront 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.

Appointing COOs at Sega Europe and Xbox

Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand has been appointed COO of Sega Europe's West Studios.

While his current duties at Rovio continue, Pelletier-Normand will also be responsible for bringing mobile and live service expertise to Sega, as the company looks to strengthen sales across its games portfolio. He’s taken on the new title after Jurgen Post stepped down, moving into an advisory position.

"There’s a wealth of experience and talent across Rovio and SEGA Europe’s studios, and I’m relishing the challenge of bringing it all together to keep both businesses improving and innovating," said Pelletier-Normand.

Helen Chiang has been appointed as Xbox’s first chief operating officer, a new executive role created as part of the company’s restructuring.

Chiang previously led Mojang Studios and the Minecraft franchise. Prior to this, she spent almost two decades working across areas of Xbox’s business, and now returns with her latest promotion to oversee day-to-day operations across content, hardware and platform teams.

The appointment was announced by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma in the broader context of an Xbox "reset" and 3,200 layoffs. Half of those layoffs have already taken place this week.

To help those impacted by games industry layoffs, Amir Satvat’s ASCG offers supporting materials and a community to share job opportunities.

New titles and opportunities at Mojang and Paramount Games

Meanwhile, Mojang’s Alyssa Liu has been promoted from quality engineer to quality data solutions architect, marking her second promotion in under three years with the studio.

More broadly, she’s been working for Xbox Game Studios since 2019, working in quality analysis. Prior to Xbox, Liu worked in consumer support at Nintendo.

"After years of shaping data‑driven quality, performance and stability at Minecraft / Mojang Studios, I'm excited to share a rebrand that better reflects my role: I'm now a quality data solutions architect," she posted on LinkedIn.

"With that block falling into place, I look forward to continuing to build clarity-creating workflows, problem-solving frameworks and systems that help teams see the map more clearly and spark joy for players across every biome."

Christopher Serra has joined Paramount Games as VP, business development and licensing.

The move follows a 10-year span as Oculus VR’s director of games BD, where Serra managed more than $2 billion in deal value and served as the principal on all bespoke deal negotiations. His experience also spans EA and Chaotic Moon Studios, with 20 years in games across his career.

IPs among his past licensing deals include Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, Medal of Honor, Marvel, Star Wars and Batman.

Recruiting and departing at Homa and Stillfront Group

Suna Tarıyan Sevgili has left Product Madness after more than five years, joining Homa as lead technical product manager.

The new job marks a slight title change from lead technical product owner, a position she spent the past three years in at Product Madness. Earlier in her career, she also worked for Thundra, NuRD, Havelsan and more.

"A heartfelt thank you to everyone at Product Madness for an incredible five years, and especially to the Lightning Link Casino team. I'm grateful for all the opportunities, challenges, support and friendships we've shared. Working alongside such talented people was a great opportunity and has helped me grow both professionally and personally," she posted on LinkedIn.

Alexis Bonte is set to leave Stillfront Group just over a year after being officially appointed as CEO on a permanent basis. He took on the mantle in March 2025 after initially becoming CEO on an interim basis in October 2024.

During Bonte’s tenure as CEO, Stillfront has split into three business divisions across Europe, North America and MENA/APAC. The company has also seen broader leadership changes, led by Bonte during what’s been described as a "decisive period" by chair of the board Lars-Johan Jarnheimer.

Bonte said: "After close to a decade at Stillfront, first leading eRepublik Labs, the studio I co-founded and which joined Stillfront in 2017, then as group COO and most recently as CEO of Stillfront, it has been a privilege to lead this company through its transformation."

Promotions, hires and changes at Supercell, Scopely and more

After more than 12 years at Supercell, head of investments Jaakko Harlas has left the company to spend more time with his family. Meanwhile, Sven Schmid has begun freelancing with Supercell, "hacking away and prototyping new hit games".

Hakan Burak Karaman has been promoted to interim head of games at Rovio Entertainment, among a number of new additions at the company. Alina Mihai has also joined as product marketing manager for Angry Birds 2, meanwhile Mario Dorado Martínez has been hired as a game tool developer intern.

Işıl Eralp has just stepped into the role of interim Turkey country lead at Rovio, too.

Niall O’Reilly has been promoted to senior audio designer one at Zynga’s NaturalMotion.

Kei Kawai has returned to Japan with experience across Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now in tow, set to serve as president of Japan for Scopely. Hector Parra, meanwhile, has just come aboard as a live game producer for Pokémon Go.

Batel Daniely is now chief of staff at Incrmntal.

Nissie Arcega has joined Wings Interactive as a publishing producer.

Anna Rosa Lappalainen has been promoted to CEO at Return Entertainment, with former CEO Vesa Jutila stepping down to take on a new opportunity in Singapore.

Frederic Tremblay has joined Altkey Studio as VP of strategic growth, departing Bkom Studios after almost 20 years.

Xiaochuan Ge has been promoted to chief technology officer at AppLovin after almost four years with the company.

After nearly six years at Playtika, Shiran Zoie Saban has made the move to Wooga as the company’s new product manager.

Hiring new hands at Miniclip, King, Unity and more

Miniclip has hired Ankush Madad as a publishing lead, making the move from Lion Studios.

Shortly before the mass layoffs at Xbox, Wendy Huston joined as chief of staff to the CTO Scott Van Vliet.

Austin Rathe has joined Unity as VP, global comms lead.

King has hired Tweshaa Dewan as a data scientist.

Vincent Nord has joined Spinoff Games as a producer.

Raptor PR has appointed Ruzbeh Gazdar as account director and Sophia Hollis as senior account executive, joining from GingerMay and Zeno London respectively.

Gamze Keser has just started her journey into the games industry with a role at Dream Games, set to serve as a performance marketing intern.

More movers and shakers across the industry

Julia Jochheim has been promoted to exmox’s senior growth marketing manager. Meanwhile, Berksu Gunduz has been appointed senior account manager at the company.

Rodrigo Alvarez-Zucchino is now creator relationships manager at Supercell, working on the Clash of Clans team.

Arpita Jain has started a new role at Roblox as a senior data engineer. Lindsey Lydecker has joined the Roblox Design Studio team as a creative manager.

Ozan Aksun has been appointed creative lead at CrazyLabs.

İlker Türker is now senior monetisation manager at Loom Games.

Jungwon Yang has joined Neon Commerce as VP of strategic partnerships.

John Henry Race has joined Mistplay as a publisher growth manager.

Aaron Brunstetter has been hired by Discord as director of engineering, set to lead engineering groups responsible for the tech helping game developers.