Ins and Outs: May 2022’s industry hires roundup

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

Splash Damage has, as ever, been on a hiring spree, with five new starters to shout about.

First, Chris Ginder joins the team as a technical artist.  Before joining Splash, Ginder worked on a number of games, such as Total War: Rome Remastered, Alien Isolation, XCOM 2 and Grid Autosport.

Next up, Ryan Barry  joins Splash as an audio designer. Prior to joining the team at Splash Damage, Barry was at Cloud Imperium working on Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

Still at Splash Damage, Stefano Quattrocchi  joins as senior development manager. The role is Quattorcchi’s first foray into game development, having previously held roles in retail and media.

Joel Fallerini joins as a senior UI artist. Previously, Fallerini worked briefly with Square Enix on an FFT inspired project and has worked in advertising for B2B & Heritage.

Finally at Splash Damage, Anirudh Valpadasu joins as an online programmer. Before Splash, Valpadasu was working at EA, in the Digital Platform, Player and Developer experience team.

Marvelous Europe has a new Community Manager in the form of Kiera Rodway. Previously working with streaming tool Dare Drop and joining there from PQube, Kiera will be working on all Marvelous Europe games including the Story of Seasons and Rune Factory series titles.

Diva Agency has added Emily Britt to its roster of executive leadership talent as head of communications. Britt has previously held international PR roles at 2K, Square Enix and the Pokémon Company International.

Julia Kenny has joined Thunderful as head of scouting at Thunderful Games. She was previously content and partnerships manager at Sega.

There’s some new moves and promotions over at Ubisoft, starting with Stefan McGarry, who has been promoted to UK communications director. McGarry was previously head of communications, and has been working at Ubisoft since 2015.

Still at Ubisoft, Livvy Garner has been promoted to UK communications manager. Garner was previously junior communications manager, and first joined Ubiosft back in 2014 as a marketing assistant intern.

Ubisoft has also promoted Silvia Gomis-Lopez to junior communications manager. Gomis-Lopez was previously UK communications executive, and has been at the company since 2020.

Next up over at Ubisoft, David Robinson has moved from his previous role in the company’s corporate affairs team in order to become UK communications manager – corporate affairs & CRC.

Finally at Ubisoft, Michael Rotchell has been promoted from head of sales to UK sales director. Rotchell has been at Ubisoft since 2007, and was previously UK sales manager at Konami.

Kalypso Media has three new starters to share, starting with Kayleigh Gilkerson who is rejoining the company as their PR and marketing manager after a career break. Gilkerson previously worked on titles such as Tropico 4, Port Royale 3 and Dungeons.

Ellie Dipple also joins Kalypso, as PR executive. This is Dipple’s first job in the games industry, having previously worked for the likes of Mark Allen Group and The White Company.

Finally at Kalypso, Andrew Clancy has joined the team as their new UK sales manager. Clancy joins Kalypso Media after working for seven years at GAME, most recently as buyer, having first joined in 2014.

There’s a whole host of hires over at Sumo Group – here’s just four of them! First, Nizar Chikhaoui joins Sumo Sheffield as a senior UI artist. A former freelance designer from France, Chikhaoui has worked for studios like Motorsport Games, Codemasters and Nacon, Warhammer.

Sam O’Shea also joins Sumo Sheffield, as global mobility manager. O’Shea was previously working as UK Mobility Lead at Capgemini, and has worked for the likes of Deloitte UK and Crown Relocations.

Jess Blincowe has joined Sumo Newcastle as an assistant producer. Blincowe has previously worked in video game retail, for the civil service and as an English teacher in Japan

Finally, Vicky Howat has joined Secret Mode, Sumo’s publishing arm, as a product marketing manager. Howat joins the Secret Mode team with a background in marketing and global consumer insights.

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