May 2026's Movers and Shakers: Xbox leadership reshuffle, Stillfront hires CHRO, 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.

Management hires at Stillfront and Lion Studios

Stillfront has hired Tanium veteran Tobias Julen as its new chief human resources officer.

The change follows eight years at Tanium, where Julen spent the past four as chief people officer, responsible for executive compensation, people strategy and more. His career has focused on scaling organisations and driving performance.

Now, Julen will leverage his leadership experience at Stillfront as a member of the chief executive management team, set to work closely with president and CEO Alexis Bonte.

"I look forward to working closely with the leadership teams to raise the bar on accountability and leadership - enabling our teams to perform at their best and supporting Stillfront's continued growth," Julen said in a LinkedIn post.

Zinaida Rasaeva has joined Lion Studios as studio manager, working out of Warsaw, Poland for the Tripledot subsidiary.

The mobile publisher has a global presence, spanning San Francisco to Berlin to Shanghai, and has driven billions of downloads in the casual scene. Rasaeva is bringing her experience in games publishing to the company, including almost seven years at World of Tanks developer Wargaming.

Five of those years were spent as business development manager, supporting product launches and building roadmaps. She also brings knowledge of the Chinese mobile market.

"I’m happy to share that I’ve joined the team at Lion Studios, a Tripledot Studio, as their new studio manager," Rasaeva posted on LinkedIn.

Managing people and platforms at Grand Games and King

Investor Kaan Polat has joined Grand Games as chief of staff. After four years on the investment side of the industry between Earlybird Venture Capital and Bek Ventures, the move marks the beginning of a new chapter on the operational side of the sector.

Polat will bring his experience from working alongside investors and founders to the new role, informing his perspective on building and scaling a company.

"Now it’s time to follow that instinct and experience the building journey from the inside with such an exciting and talented team. Grand has built something truly special in a very short period of time, and I’m incredibly excited to be part of this journey as we reach new milestones," he posted on LinkedIn.

Grand Games has been in the news this week after raising $70 million in a Series B funding round.

Iryna Pyrih has been hired as platforms GTM manager at King, tasked with driving visibility, engagement and long-term growth across the studio’s portfolio.

Pyrih will also focus on how King’s games show up across platforms and will help to build partnerships, following her experience as platform partnerships lead at Rovio.

"I’ve been welcomed with so much warmth and genuine friendliness, and my colleagues have already been incredibly supportive and helpful. Grateful for everything that led me here, and very excited for what’s ahead," Pyrih posted on LinkedIn.

Designing at Scopely and leading partnerships at Supercell

Rachelle Tsubara has joined Scopely as content designer on Monopoly Go, bringing artistic experience from Playtika, Whalo and the Israeli Animation College.

Tsubara’s career has taken her from Isarel to the UK, with responsibilities spanning in-game visual content, 2D and 3D production, and asset and environmental creation. Her new position at Scopely will see her continue to focus on creativity.

"Over the years, I’ve become particularly passionate about shaping player experiences through the power of narrative and content creation, experiences that feel memorable, engaging and rewarding for players. Something tells me this next chapter will be full of creativity, and will lead to some of my most impactful work yet," Tsubara posted on LinkedIn.

Björn Karlsson has joined Clash of Clans maker Supercell as creator and influencer partnerships lead.

He brings experience from Wehype, where he’s spent the past five years in roles like head of partnerships, director of Wehype mobile and director of live service games. Among his achievements, Karlsson directed eight-figure partnerships annually and led commercial efforts on mobile.

"New role: creator and influencer partnerships lead at Supercell. A dream come true role for me. Can’t wait to throw myself into this adventure," he posted on LinkedIn.

Moving around at Microsoft

Recently appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been promoting leaders and bringing in new voices to "evolve" Xbox, including Jared Palmer, Tim Allen, Jonathan McKay and David Schloss.

Palmer will oversee product, engineering and developer tools, formerly an executive of GitHub and Vercel.

Allen is Xbox’s new head of design, bringing experience as Instacart’s design lead.

McKay is a former OpenAI and Meta executive, appointed head of growth.

Schloss is set to lead Xbox’s subscription and cloud business.

Meanwhile, Kevin Gammill and Roanne Sones are stepping away from their leadership roles, after serving as corporate VP of gaming ecosystem organisation and corporate VP of Xbox devices and ecosystem respectively.

Sones is expected to return as an Xbox advisor following a leave of absence.

Entering new positions at Scopely

María Pérez Gago has joined Scopely as Monopoly Go UX director, while Lynsey Ng has been hired as principal product manager, live games.

At the same time, Swati T has been promoted to AI and ML product engineer after one year at the company.

Tami Lam has also joined as senior producer on the Monopoly Go minigames team.

New hires at Supercell, Riot Games, FreePlay and more

Sergey Marcinkiewicz has joined FreePlay as head of publishing after six years at Azur Games.

Supercell has hired Antti Karppinen as creative AI specialist and Cedric Tan as a project manager for live ops and monetisation.

Qayser Sachdev has joined the Esports Foundation as head of national team relations.

JetSynthesys veteran Siddharth Pradhan has joined Zynga as ad operations manager.

Cole Schoneman is bringing experience from Riot Games and Activision to Kabam, hired as brand marketing manager. Joongkul Lee has joined Riot Games as a platform partnerships specialist.

Lea Schönfelder has been hired as director of creative product experience at GameHouse.

Roblox has hired Mohamed El Sheakh as general manager for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, set to oversee Roblox’s regional expansion strategy.

Jinnan Chen has joined Roblox Foundation AI as an AI engineer.

After two years at Megabit Publishing, Sophie G has returned to a full-time position at Bkom Studios as head of growth and discovery.

Husamettin Yuzer has moved from Sunday to Goodgame Studios, starting a new role as senior product marketing manager.

Julia Torell has joined Studio 555 as a junior producer.