October 2026's Movers and Shakers: Mojang, Xbox, Scopely, Ukie, Skydance, 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 appointments at Mojang and Xbox

Maria Angelidou-Smith has been appointed CEO of Mojang and Minecraft, set to take over starting October 19th.

She will report directly to Xbox leadership and brings experience from Meta, having formerly worked across events, creators, search and monetisation. She led Facebook Groups, used by more than 1.8 billion people per month.

More recently, Angelidou-Smith spent the past year as chief product officer at Reddit.

She is expected to bring her knowledge of building products to Minecraft’s continued development.

Kayleen Walters has been appointed as president of XP by Xbox, heading up a new division focused on expanding its franchises beyond games.

She has joined the company from Mojang, a fellow company within Microsoft, where she helped to grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business. Walters was also executive producer of the 2025 film A Minecraft Movie.

Earlier in her career, Walters spent 13 years at Lucasfilm working on the Star Wars IP across films, products and partnerships.

Her appointment was announced alongside Angelidou-Smith’s as part of Xbox’s plans around Creator and Connection.

New chair and head of platform relations at Ukie and Devolver Digital

Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott is the new chair of Ukie after joining the board in 2025.

He succeeds Maria Sayans after her two years of service in the role. He will focus on supporting the next generation of UK games talent and businesses, including attention on independent and mid-market companies.

"We have extraordinary creative and technical talent, globally recognised studios and a long history of producing games and intellectual property that reach audiences around the world," said Elliott.

"We are also at an inflexion point. The industry has changed in the last few years and we have a real opportunity to build on the strengths that have made the UK a world leader, while ensuring the next generation for games businesses can thrive."

Chloé Giusti has joined Devolver Digital after more than six years at Microsoft.

Formerly of Pocket Gamer parent company Steel Media, Giusti worked in business development growing the brand in North America. She later joined Microsoft in 2020 with a focus on North and South America, and over the years worked her way up to the role of ID@Xbox senior lead, Americas and ANZ.

Now, she’s joined Devolver Digital as head of platform relations, again based in the US.

Promotions and opportunities at Scopely and Skydance

Scopely’s Katerina Sotiropoulou has been promoted to director, people business partner for Monopoly Go.

In almost three years with the studio, she has served in various people business partner roles with expertise in organisational development, talent management and HR business partnering. She has also worked at Persado, MR HealthTech and spent nine years at Intralot.

"Feeling very grateful for the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of people every day. Looking forward to this next chapter," Sotiropoulou posted on LinkedIn.

Formerly president at Paramount Games, Tony Driscoll has now become president of games and experiences at Skydance.

The conglomerate includes Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery following the completed acquisition earlier this month, merging the film and television studios in a $111 billion deal.

This has brought together networks like CBS, CNN and MTV, streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+, and has also brought Discovery’s games division into the fold - with studios including Rocksteady, NetherRealm, TT Games, Avalanche Software and WB Games Montreal.

New hires at Rollic, Epic Games, Supercell and more

Eren Trabzon has been hired as a product specialist at Rollic.

Mario Giampaolo has joined Mattel Studios as global head of content distribution.

King has hired José Manuel Fernández Agulló as a senior software engineer.

Nur Ugurlu has joined Metica as revenue lead in Türkiye.

Epic Games has hired Delanie Wiedrich as a producer.

Loom Games has appointed new hire Yiğit Cem Sarıoğ as a product manager.

Joe Cullen has joined Trailmix as a principal data engineer. Eskopekka Javanainen has joined as a senior content designer.

Vicky Wheeler has joined Fusebox Games as project lead writer.

Diogo da Rocha Pereira has joined Supercell as a creator and influencer manager.

Promotions at Scopely, Riot and more

Jamie Hegarty has been promoted to associate technical director at Scopely, working on Monopoly Go. Meanwhile, Jesse Kroon has been promoted to lead game designer on Monopoly Go.

Jenny Kim has been promoted to senior principal game producer at Riot Games, marking her seventh promotion in 15 years with the studio.

Luke O’Leary is now chief operating officer at BisectHosting, having spent seven years with the company. He hopes to build closer integrations with game studios and modding platforms.

Kabam has promoted Tyler Thomson to the role of director, live service.