MCV Jobs Weekly: Xbox strengthens its UK comms team

Etemad and Jago join Microsoft, Sumo hires Lionhead art director and KamaGames opens a UK office.

Microsoftstrengthens Xbox comms team

The Xbox UK communications team has two new members.

Roxana Etemad has been appointed as communications manager, reporting to head of communications for devices Paul Almond.

Etemad spent five years at Square Enix, where she was UK PR manager working on campaigns for titles including Final Fantasy, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Tomb Raider. Prior to that, she held various leading positions at Atari, Sony and Ubisoft.

Rod Jago has also joined the Xbox UK PR team at Assembly, Edelman’s integrated team for servicing Microsoft. He will assist in the development and execution of integrated communications campaigns.

Jago joins from PPR in Sydney where he managed campaigns for Dell, Alienware, Microsoft, 2K Games and Wargaming. During his time at PPR, Rod oversaw a number of hardware and software launches including key triple-A console titles, MMOs and new hardware.

Sumo hires new art director

Former Lionhead art director Kelvin Tuite has joined Sumo Digital’s Nottingham studio in the same position. Prior to Lionhead, Tuite worked for the likes of DeepMind, EA and Bullfrog.

He commented: It’s great to be working with another company that’s full of such talented and creative people. I look forward to making our exciting line up of games look amazing.”

Studio director Karl Hilton added: It’s a great opportunity for the new studio in Nottingham to have someone as experienced as Kelvin join our team.

He will help us grow the capabilities of the studio and contribute his considerable knowledge to the games we’re developing. Every person who joins the new studio at this stage will play an important role in creating our development culture here in Nottingham.”

KamaGames opens UK office

Mobile firmKamaGames justopened a new office in London and announced two hires.

Joining from Team17 where he was PR director, Sam Forrest has been hired as director of global PR. He previously held similar roles at Jagex and THQ.

Furthermore, Daniel Kashti has been appointed as CMO. He was PokerStars’ head of mobile for the past five years.

Kashti said: We felt it was the right time to focus on growing the player-base with the setting up of a UK service company, as well as making some key appointments.”