March 2026's Movers and Shakers: Pokémon’s product marketing manager, multiple King promotions, founding Rocket Game Talent, 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.

Marketing and growing at The Pokémon Company International and SciPlay

After eight months working as a contractor at The Pokémon Company International, Sanne Greijdanus has been hired on a full-time basis in the role of product marketing manager.

She has been working in games marketing for almost five years, with positions spanning 2K, Konami, Firestoke and, most recently, Pokémon. Her responsibilities have included devising social media strategies, running social channels, working with third-party influencer agencies and more.

"I'm very excited to share that I will be continuing my work at The Pokémon Company International as a product marketing manager. I've had an amazing time at the company as a contractor, and feel honoured to now be able to continue working alongside my lovely colleagues on a full-time basis," Greijdanus posted on LinkedIn.

Amos Adler has been promoted to VP of growth at SciPlay in his sixth year at the studio.

Having started out as director of UA in 2020, Adler was later appointed senior director of growth and has now received another promotion. His career has also spanned Israeli firms DGN Games and DauUp, plus a year’s teaching at Tel Aviv University.

"I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as VP of Growth at SciPlay," he posted on LinkedIn.

Starting new journeys at Rocket Game Talent and Qomms Branding Studio

Former Xbox Game Studios and Sony PlayStation talent leader Fiona Cherbak has launched Rocket Game Talent to help game studios build and scale hiring operations.

She’s serving as head of this new agency, off the back of 6.5 years at Microsoft. She has previously led talent operations across 14 Xbox Game Studios teams working on franchises like Halo, Gears of War and Forza.

During her career, other major franchises she’s helped staff teams for include God of War and BioShock: Infinite.

Anastasia Zaiceva is leaving ZiMAD to launch Qomms Branding Studio this month, a studio focused on project-based collaborations. As founder, she’s looking to speak with B2B and B2C companies, startups, funds and more, eager to help businesses design and implement brand and communication systems.

Zaiceva joined ZiMAD in 2022 as head of communications and since advanced to chief communications officer. Her experience includes media relations, copywriting, in-game partnership campaigns and more.

"After four remarkable years, I am leaving ZiMAD at the end of March. During this time we built something I am deeply proud of: a communications function that grew from initiatives into a structured system. Together with an incredible team, we built communication engines, lifecycle funnels, and content production processes operating at the level of top global companies," she posted on LinkedIn.

"The next step for me is to focus fully on what I believe companies need more than ever: building brand systems that work both inside and outside the organisation - not only visually, but structurally."

Bringing knowledge to Aghanim and Alinea Analytics

Ben Lyon has joined D2C platform Aghanim as director, business development.

The move comes after years spent at Vungle and Liftoff Mobile, before and after their merger in 2021. Lyon started out in supply, EMEA at Vungle in 2019 and continued under the same title at Liftoff. Earlier in his career, he worked in accounts at The Brand Agency.

"After an incredible six years at Liftoff Mobile, I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Aghanim - the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer platform in the market. I’m deeply grateful for my time at Liftoff Mobile and for the chance to work alongside such talented, thoughtful colleagues and brilliant clients. I’ll be cheering the team on (loudly!) from the sidelines," he posted on LinkedIn.

Alinea Analytics has hired Tobias Sjögren to its leadership team, where he’s working as head of business development.

In this role, Sjögren will leverage decades of institutional insight to accelerate Alinea Analytics’ growth trajectory, expected to offer clients executive-level support. This builds upon more than 30 years spent across a spectrum of industry positions, from programming to game development to investment and strategy.

Sjögren is known for leading Dice’s Stockholm studio during the launch of the original Battlefield. He has also served as CEO of Starbreeze Entertainment, Fox in a Box and White Wolf Entertainment, in addition to VP of mobile games at Stardoll.

Promoting women at King

Candy Crush giant King has made a series of promotions with women across various roles rising up the ranks.

Carla Romero Guillén has been promoted to senior marketing operations specialist on Candy Crush as her fourth anniversary at the studio approaches.

Meanwhile, Andrea Serfaty, who we interviewed about the "deceptively complex" world of boosters during her time as principal UX designer, has now been promoted to UX lead.

Vivian Meij has been promoted to associate product manager on Candy Crush after joining as a business performance trainee in 2024.

And, Emily Pestell has moved into King’s consumer marketing team, where she’s started a new position as senior brand communications manager.

Leadership levels at Xbox, Bossfight, Gamefam and more

Major Xbox leadership changes were announced in recent weeks, including the retirement of Microsoft executive VP of gaming Phil Spencer after 38 years with the company. He’s spent the past 12 years leading its games division.

Xbox president and COO Sarah Bond is also departing after nearly nine years working with Xbox.

At the same time, former Instacart COO and Meta VP Asha Sharma has joined as the EVP and CEO of Microsoft Gaming, where Matt Booty has been promoted to the role of EVP and chief content officer.

Alison Zeng has joined Xbox as strategic partner manager.

Elsewhere, Krafton has appointed Kangwook Lee as its new chief AI officer.

Transmedia studio Beyond The Pixels has expanded its leadership team with senior appointments including COO Wouter Sleijffers and CTO Andrea Tedeschi. Des Gayle and Muki Kulhan have joined the advisory board.

After Netflix shuttered Squid Game: Unleashed developer Boss Fight Entertainment in 2025, independent studio Bossfight has reformed with David Rippy back at the helm. He’s serving as CEO, joined by Scott Winsett as COO and Bill Jackson as CPO.

Wooga’s former VP of creative Sebastian Nußbaum has joined Sixteen Tons Entertainment as chief creative officer.

Ricardo Briceno has been appointed CEO at Roblox game developer Gamefam.

Nexon has appointed Patrick Söderlund to the newly created role of executive chairman, where he’s taking broad authority over long-term strategy and creative direction.

BidOn has expanded its leadership and engineering team with a board of senior figures from Scopely, Zynga, TapNation, 52 Entertainment, ParshipMeet Group and PubRev+. Members include Kenneth Wong, Phil Suh, Charlie Castell, Vincent Tessier, Nolan Fox and Vincent Février.

Gaming accelerator Exel by Merak has appointed Faisal Sedrani as CEO.

Make-A-Wish International has appointed Markus Wilding to its Infinite Wishes Advisory Committee.

Shifting status at Keywords Studios, The LEGO Group, The Pokémon Company International and more

Keywords Studios has hired Olga Sheverieva to its player engagement team, where she’s now working as account executive.

Jenna Seiden has joined The LEGO Group in its games division, where she’s serving as VP and head of business development. Laurent Veilleux has been hired to the group as senior engineer, gaming technology.

Venture capitalist Arcadia Gaming Partners has appointed Sabahat Gümüştaş as principal.

Marissa Kinzel has joined The Pokémon Company International as localisation editor 2. Skye Smith has been officially joined as associate product marketing manager after almost two years’ work as a contractor.

Former Rovio director of marketing Jelena Brajovic has been hired as VP of marketing by Small Giant Games.

ThinkingData has appointed Brandon Nader as VP of marketing.

Former Candy Crush senior product director Alena Rybik has joined Edurino as chief product officer.

Emma Hearn has joined Antstream Arcade as head of communications.

Krafton has hired Syed Zainul Abedin as a senior game developer.

Simone Luxi has joined Scopely, working in market strategy.

Batuhan Özmen has started a new role as head of publishing at Gaming in Türkiye, MENA, EU.

Alexandre Colin Noir has joined Voodoo as product lead for midcore games.

In her ninth year at Google, Marine Wing has landed her latest promotion to the role of global web gaming partnerships lead.