Ins and Outs: September 2022’s industry hires roundup

Here are the highlights from the recent industry hires and moves, as published in MCV/DEVELOP’s September 2022 issue. 

BRENT OP DE BEECK has joined RevRooms as an audio programmer. Before working at RevRooms he worked at Bulkhead Interactive on multiple FPS titles. Brent studied Digital Arts and Entertainment Game Development at Howest in Kortrijk, Belgium and graduated with a focus on graphics programming. Brent is considered the odd one out at RevRooms because he doesn’t play any instruments, for which he gets bullied by his colleagues every day.

Also at RevRooms is KERRY TURNER, who is its latest senior audio programmer. She started her games career at BAFTA-winning studio Littleloud, and went on to work for studios including Failbetter Games, Mediatonic, and MAG Interactive. She also worked for Unity for several years, providing technical training and best practice guidance. Kerry has spoken at conferences all over the world and has also lectured at degree level. Outside of work, she makes short, strange games and lo-fi electronic music.

AMARESH BHANGLE has left the fast-paced world of video games PR at Bastion behind for the even faster paced corporate landscape over at Amazon UK, where he’ll be working hard as a workplace PR specialist.

TALAL MUSA has joined BGFG as their head of digital. Talal will oversee the growth and development of WePC, PC Guide and Videogamer.com. He was previously head of digital media at Gfinity, where he created and oversaw the Gfinity Digital Media Group, turning it into a network of multiple websites that reached millions of users every month. Talal has an extensive background in journalism and PR, and has worked with News UK, Edelman, The Daily Mail and M&C Saatchi.

SARA MACHADO is the newest senior recruiter at Sumo Group, and has a strong focus on diversity, inclusion and equality. She is known for creating the biggest recruitment survey in games; deep diving into candidates’ job hunting preferences and so that she can design what she considers to be the best hiring processes.

MATTHEW CHAPMAN is a new assistant game designer at Sumo Sheffield, and joins the studio after a short stint of work experience at the company. He also studies games design at Sheffield Hallam University, so we’re absolutely certain that he must be a very busy person.

LOUISE HEPPELL has also joined the team at Sumo Sheffield, as an HR administrator. She used to work in the care industry as an HR Administrator, and has an MSc in HRM. This is her first games industry role, and has told us that she is very excited about it.

AGNIESZKA PRZEPIORKOWSKA has become a senior learning and development advisor at Sumo Sheffield. Before joining the team at Sumo, she worked in translation, interpreting and language teaching jobs. She also used to proofread comic books, although we’re not told which ones.

KEVIN WAFER has joined the team at Sumo Sheffield as a principal technical artist. He’s worked in the industry for over 20 years, and has spent time at big industry companies like Activision, Electronic Arts, King and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Wrapping up our list of new recruits at Sumo Sheffield is ASH LONG, their latest junior QA tester. He finds himself at Sumo after spending some time in the high pressure esports world. Ash used to work as head coach for Team Envy’s Overwatch League academy team and later as the head coach of Cloud 9’s Valorant team, before making the transition to full-time game development.

THEO CLARKE is the latest senior quality analyst at Red Kite Games, and comes to them after working at Soccer Manager Ltd and Traveller’s Tales. He’s worked on over a dozen games, across mobile, console and PC – and that’s not including the projects he’s told us he’s secretly working on at home.

MICHAEL HAZLE is the newest QA tester at Red Kite Games, coming to them from Universally Speaking, where he also worked in the QA department. Before that he spent some time freelancing as a journalist and content creator for The New Collection.

ELLIE BROWN is now a character artist at Sumo Nottingham. Before that she was a 3D Artist at Red Kite Games. Ellie also co-created Ocean Spark Studios, an academy that went to schools and ran workshops to give girls more of an insight into how games are made.

NINA KLOS has joined Sumo Leamington as a technical artist. She used to be an associate technical artist at DR Studios. Nina also has a BA (Hons) in game art, which she received from De Montfort University in Leicester.

ALEX FULLARTON is a junior programmer at Sumo Warrington. He is also a graduate from the MComp Computer Science for Games at Sheffield Hallam University. He’s from Darlington, which is the same place as MCV/DEVELOP’s staff writer Vince Pavey.

JOHN NEWBERRY is now a technical designer at The Chinese Room. He was previously at Bulkhead, where he worked to help bring The Turing Test to the Nintendo Switch and Google Stadia. He also worked on the video game Wardogs.

MICHAEL GENESIS ASIS has also become a senior environment artist at The Chinese Room. He used to work at Ubisoft Philippines, on AAA video game releases like Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

JOE ROBINSON is the new communications director at Hooded Horse. Until walking into the the stable he was was the strategy editor for PCGamesN. With thirteen(ish) years under his belt across games media and PR, he is sure to be valuable to his new team.

JON TIBBLE has joined CI Games as vice president of global sales. He has worked in the industry for nearly 20 years, and was part of the team that relaunched the F1 series at Codemasters as director of sales, as well as numerous Activision Blizzard titles.

EMMA O’REILLY has
joined Snap Finger Click as a junior Unity engineer. She recently graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with first class honours in Computer Games Development and has a passion for 3D computer graphics. The studio’s upcoming Awkward 2 party game will be her main focus.

RUTH CARNEGIE has also joined Snap Finger Click as a junior Unity engineer. She graduated from the University of Abertay, specialising in Computer Games Technologies. Prior to this she achieved a first class degree at the University of Dundee in Applied Computing. Ruth’s passion for accessibility in games is a great fit for Snap Finger Click’s focus on multiplayer party games.

KALAM NEALE is the new head of education at British Esports. You might know him as the winner of the prestigious Pearson National Teaching Award, or as the key architect of the esports BTEC diploma. In his new role he intends to continue to help deliver a continued focus on esports as part of education.

ANDIE CHIVERS GOUDIE has joined Testronic as chief people officer. Andie has over 25 years of experience in HR, and joins the company following senior roles in the financial services sector and at the guitar manufacturing giant Fender.

Also at Testronic, ANN HURLEY has been promoted to senior vice president of sales and marketing. She has been at the studio for over seven years, and has played an important role in growing the company’s games business. As a Women in Games ambassador, Hurley has also been integral to Testronic’s EDI policies and initiatives.

CATHERINE BYGRAVE has moved from Gfinity to Humble Games, where she’s taken on the job of director of publishing strategy and growth. She is also a Women in Games Ambassador, and was on our shortlist for the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games Awards in 2022.

MATT HANDRAHAN is now senior portfolio manager at Kepler. Before that, he was a game content analyst for global third-party relations at PlayStation. You may also remember him as the former editor-in-chief of GamesIndustry.biz, a job he held for nearly ten years.

SEAN MURPHY is now the studio outsource manager for Firaxis Games. Before joining the company he worked as an outsource manager at places like Aspyr Media and Armature Studio, so that makes sense. He’s been working in games in some form or other since 1985, so it’s safe to say that he likes them rather a lot.

CHRISTIAN WAIT has left his job as gaming guides and SEO writer at Social Chain, to become the newest gaming and tech SEO writer at GRV Media. He has a long history of being in the media, having once appeared on a live stand up Michael Barrymore VHS as a five year old. Christian also 3D prints and paints miniatures at @SaberMiniatures on Twitter.

Finally, ROGER COLLUM has joined Creative Assembly as vice president of the Total War franchise. He used to be head of studio development at EA Dice and has held several other positions in the industry over more than 15 years, including a stint as lead producer on Epic Games’ Fortnite.