September 2026's Movers and Shakers: Savvy Games Group, Supercell, Scopely, King, Moloco 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.

High-level shifts at Savvy and Moloco

Brian Ward is stepping down from his position as Savvy Games Group CEO after half a decade with the company. Since 2021, he has overseen its investments, acquisitions and expansion across games and esports - including the $4.9 billion acquisition of Scopely.

During Ward’s time at the helm, Savvy also came to own geolocation giant Pokémon Go through Scopely, as part of a $3.5bn deal in 2025.

Ward informed staff that the time has come for new leadership. The deputy governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund Turqi Alnowaiser will serve as interim acting CEO of Savvy Games Group until a new leader is found.

Moloco has appointed Rachel Glaser to its board of directors, bringing experience as a financial leader across a range of digital marketplace and technology companies. Most recently, she served as Etsy CFO where she played a key role in driving several years of revenue and margin expansions.

Glaser also currently serves on the boards of The New York Times Company and CoStar Group as an independent director. Her appointment at Moloco is expected to help the AI advertising company move into its next phase of growth.

"Moloco has built truly differentiated AI technology, and because the business grows only when its customers do, that edge leads directly to sustainable, profitable growth. I look forward to helping the team build on that in the company's next chapter," said Glaser.

Entering new eras at Apple and Lion Studios

Phil Schiller has stepped down from his role at Apple after more than 30 years with the tech conglomerate. He served at Apple under both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, originally joining in 1987 with only four years outside the giant since.

Schiller spent two decades as the senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and has headed up the App Store since 2015, with the 2020s seeing him navigate the long lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple’s App Store fees.

Schiller is stepping down from his role but will remain involved with the company as an Apple fellow. He’ll be working on unspecified projects, although insiders told Bloomberg they believe it is a big step toward him ultimately retiring.

Cook has now also completed his final day as Apple CEO, after new leadership was announced in the spring. John Ternus has become Apple’s new CEO effective September 1st.

Lion Studios has appointed Tamara Feiman as CEO after six years with the company. Leading the studio’s next chapter, she’s taken over from Nicholas Le as he transitions to the role of studio chair - and PeopleFun’s new CEO.

During her years with Lion Studios, Feiman has advanced through a range of titles like EMEA business development lead, studio management director and general manager of publishing.

She helped develop partnerships with studios across EMEA, Turkey and APAC, while also leading a portfolio of more than 50 games including Coin Sort, Wordle! and Arrow Out.

"I’m fortunate to work alongside an incredible team across publishing, growth, product, engineering and market intelligence, as well as our talented studio partners around the world. I’m proud of what we’ve built together and excited about where we can take Lion next," Feiman posted on LinkedIn.

Strategy and finance at Scopely and King

Scopely has hired Tiana Clark as corporate strategy lead, bringing in experience and perspectives from outside the games industry.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Clark has spent the past two years at Disney, first as an MBA intern of finance strategy and specialist projects for Walt Disney Imagineering. She proceeded to work at the Walt Disney Company as manager of Disney+ global subscriber growth and monetisation, focused on international markets like EMEA, LATAM and APAC.

"Last month, I joined Scopely as corporate strategy lead in the office of the co-CEOs. I'm thrilled to join this mobile games powerhouse and am excited to help drive what's next," she posted on LinkedIn.

King has hired Max Métral after 4.5 years spent at Activision Blizzard. In that time, he served as a strategic partner to Activision Blizzard’s finance organisation and led the go-to-market analytics and business intelligence team, bringing market insights and advanced analytics to assess commercial opportunities.

Now, he has joined King as commercial finance director.

"After an incredible journey across Activision Blizzard, I'm grateful for the people I've worked with, the challenges we've tackled and everything I've learned along the way," Métral posted on LinkedIn.

"Looking forward to partnering with the talented teams at King, helping shape the next phase of Portfolio growth across some of the world's most-loved games."

Major moves at 1Up Ventures, King, Loom Games and more

Amir Satvat has joined 1Up Ventures as a general partner, departing from his role as business development director at Tencent Games after three years.

Children’s interactive entertainment platform Lingokids has named Mathias Royer as its VP, bringing 15 years of experience in mobile games. The studio recently ranked in our Top 30 Iberia Game Makers list.

Lasse Seppänen has departed from Supercell after more than seven years, planning to start a new studio in 2027.

CodeDev Group has appointed Ben Board as CEO of its optimisation division The Performance Guys after almost nine years at Epic Games.

Kimz Zhang has joined Lion Studios as studio manager, focused on hybrid puzzle games and building partnerships with devs across China and APAC.

Arjun Varma has been hired by Roblox to lead developer relations in India and South Asia, building on experience at Meta and Microsoft.

The European Game Developers Federation has re-elected industry entrepreneur Hendrik Lesser as president for the period of 2026 to 2028.

Cansu Karahan Can has joined Loom Games as people and culture manager. Sila Turku Askin has been hired as senior performance marketing manager.

Joseph Morrone has returned to Zynga as a senior QA analyst after nine years away.

Esther Lopez has returned to King in a new role, now serving as principal VFX artist in the match-3 giant’s Barcelona office. Meanwhile, Ragnar Dunder has joined King in Sweden as a senior UI/UX designer.

Within King, David Howe has shifted focus from Farm Heroes Saga to Candy Crush, now serving as the game’s product strategy director.

After more than 12 years at King, Luis Russell has joined Huuuge Games as VP product.

Hires and promotions at Supercell, Miniclip, Playtika and more

Bruno Ribeiro has joined Miniclip as senior program manager.

Luran Zhang has been hired as a new community manager at Supercell.

Scopely has appointed Rodney Lopez as corporate development manager.

LoopMe has hired Molly Fett as a talent partner.

Varun Mathure has joined PlaySimple Games and Modern Times Group as chief marketing officer of the casual division.

Dimitra Papacosta has joined Yodo1 Games as social media and community manager for two game titles.

Wehype has appointed Janina Warsén as its new COO.

Voodoo has appointed Eren Nalçacı as general manager.

Fulya Kumlu is now a product specialist at Ace Games.

Nabib El-Rahman is now Discord’s VP of product, business.

Tim W has joined Adjust in the partnerships team for the Americas.

Matt Sattel has joined InMobi as SVP, head of revenue for North America.

Dilan Demirel has joined Pantheon Games as a QA specialist.

Wabantu Hlophe has been promoted to global games business operations lead for Google Play.

Christopher Kerr is stepping down as Game Developer’s senior news editor at the end of September.

Houston Whaley has been promoted to senior manager, mobile marketing at Activision.

AppsFlyer has appointed Hilla Schachtel to the position of data analyst.

Guy Bauer has joined Playtika as senior director of marketing for Slotomania.

Anni Chang has been promoted to producer one at Kabam.

Artists abound at Rollic, Grand Games, Tripledot and more

Rollic has hired Esma Özdemir as a 3D game artist.

Pelin Kiper has joined Grand Games as a UA artist.

Nicola Sirago has joined Tripledot Studios as lead technical artist.

Babil Games has appointed Adel Alhamwi as a technical 3D artist.

Meagan Taylor is now working for Wizards of the Coast as a senior UX designer on the Magic: The Gathering Arena team.