October 2026’s Movers and Shakers: Appcharge, Stash, Zynga, Xbox, Scopely, Rollic, and more
Stay Informed
Get Industry News In Your Inbox…
Sign Up Today
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 hires and departures at Appcharge and Microsoft
Ronen Morecki has moved from monday.com to Appcharge, joining the D2C platform as COO.
With more than 25 years of experience, Morecki’s career has spanned PayU, VeriSign, Mercury Interactive, as well as 13 years spent as co-founder and CTO of ZooZ. He spent the last 3.5 years with monday.com scaling the organisation and leading multidisciplinary teams, working as VP, payments.
“One thing I’ve learned along the way is that payments are far more than just processing transactions. Getting payments right, across geographies, providers, currencies and payment methods, is a complex challenge that requires great technology, deep expertise, lots of operational efforts and continuous optimisation,” he posted on LinkedIn.
“I believe the next evolution of our industry is moving beyond giving merchants the tools to manage payments, to actually managing and optimising payments for them. This is exactly what excites me about Appcharge.”
Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft after just three months as Xbox’s first chief operating officer.
Her departure follows 21 years at Microsoft, including a period leading Minecraft. Her latest role was created as part of Xbox’s business reset, expected to bring its businesses under one operating model, support investment decisions and improve accountability for results.
Following her departure, Chiang’s immediate responsibilities are being split among other Xbox leaders while the company determines its next steps.
Stash and Roblox land high-level hires
Stash has hired Women in Games ambassador Katharina Schmidt as associate director of business development. She brings experience from Accenture and Rovio in Finland, having worked most recently as Rovio’s senior business development manager.
Schmidt will remain in Finland with Stash, expected to help open up new revenue opportunities.
“I’m excited to work with our partners to unlock new revenue for games by building authentic, rewarding direct-to-consumer channels that game teams own,” she posted on LinkedIn.
John Osvald has joined Roblox as head of creator relations after spending the past year at Series Entertainment.
His latest move follows a career spanning EA, Zynga, Gala Games, Imposter Entertainment and more, where he’s served in positions like head of product, mobile games and co-CEO.
“Getting to know Roblox over the past few months, two things stood out. AI is dropping the floor on game creation to below sea level. At the same time, the ceiling keeps rising on the fidelity and complexity of the games the platform can host,” Osvald posted on LinkedIn.
“Floor dropping, ceiling rising. That’s a rare combination, and it’s going to change who builds games and what they’re capable of building.”
Leadership roles at Skillz and Scopely
Skillz has appointed Ankur Dewani as CEO, leveraging his experience under the same job title at Boom Games and Sachiko Gaming.
Dewani also co-founded Boom Games, having built the business from scratch and achieving profitability. He spent more than three years at the company before making this latest move to Skillz, with more than 15 years’ experience overall.
“Super excited to be joining Skillz. A great team, an exciting opportunity and so much potential to build something special together. Looking forward to this next chapter and everything that’s ahead,” he posted on LinkedIn.
Julie Kim has been promoted to lead producer at Scopely as her third anniversary with the mobile games giant approaches.
She first joined Scopely in January 2024 as senior game producer, live content and content design for Monopoly Go. Since then, she’s served as content designer, senior game producer – roadmap and now lead producer.
Kim’s background includes mobile and console games, with previous employers including Pixelberry Studios and Blizzard Entertainment.
Hiring sprees at Rollic, Loom Games, Zynga and Scopely
Rollic has hired Ömer Vanlıoğlu as a game manager and Alp Akkaya as a junior 2D artist. Meanwhile, Kübra Erguvan has joined the company as a 3D artist, Batuhan Hamza Çankaya has been appointed product manager and Pelinsu Arslan has been named product manager.
Ahmet Nurda Oguz has joined Loom Games as a product specialist. Gizem Karatas has joined as a product manager, while Dilan Tan has come aboard as a senior animator.
Tim Giang has been appointed as data analyst at Zynga, while Paul Chambers has been named senior design director of new games. Ilgın Erdem is also a new hire, starting a position as QA manager.
Vanda Huesken has joined Scopely as senior manager, UX design for Marvel Strike Force. Charlie Dunlap has been named Scopely’s lead software engineer.
New appointments at Atari, King, Stillfront and more
Atari has appointed Hipster Whale co-founder and Crossy Road creator Matt Hall as EVP of Mobile, expected to help ease the process of bringing Atari games across engines and platforms.
Side has acquired games Roboto Entertainment and appointed Andrea Cordella as global head of art and Chengdu studio head.
Stillfront has named former King executive Marcus Jacobs as CEO.
Matt Ledger has returned to King for his third run with the company, now serving as incident manager.
Vik Agarwal has joined Roblox as a member of the product team.
After almost seven years at Epic Games, Patrick Berger has joined Supercell as senior marketing manager, EMEA. Livia Antal has joined Supercell as a creative producer on Hay Day.
André Miraldo has joined Miniclip as advertising monetisation manager.
Vincent Bernardin has joined AdSurge as head of EMEA.
Andre Ladvocat Cintra has joined Apple as business manager, apps and games.
Joshua Birse has been hired as senior manager – game production at Riot Games.
Fresh hires at Flow Games, ByteBrew, Ten Square Games and more
Flow Games has hired Zeynep Yaprak as a game artist.
Igor Melniks has left ZBD after four years to join ByteBrew, now the company’s head of revenue.
Miikka Lindgren has joined NEON as VP of strategic partnerships.
After eight years at Maze Theory, Russ Harding has joined Rhino Rock Studios as partner and director.
Dock Kim has joined Bidease as VP of business development.
Tuğba Çelik has been hired as a game artist at Paxie Games.
Dilara Cezairlioğlu has joined Circle Games as a senior game artist.
Cypher Games has hired Furkan Cansever as lead backend engineer.
Marc Galdo Ojeda has joined Tripledot as a producer.
Ten Square Games has appointed João Silva as lead ad monetisation product manager.
Adriana Acevedo has started a new engagement with Supercell as a partnerships platform consultant.
Robin Ng has returned to Playpark, now country manager of Playpark Singapore.
Xsolla has hired Laurent Munieras as VP of EMEA partnerships.
Vicky Wheeler has joined Fusebox Games as project lead writer.
Latest promotions at Scopely, Supercell, Tripledot and more
Dan Ayoub has been appointed president of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games, set to take on the role on November 2nd.
Scopely has promoted Jesse Kroon to lead game designer on Monopoly Go. Hyojung Lee has also been promoted, now a senior product analyst.
Topias Kokkinen has been promoted to live ops and monetisation lead at Supercell. Oyku Kural has moved back into the central community team at Supercell as community manager, corporate brand and new games.
James Timmins has been promoted to lead data scientist (Group AI team) at Tripledot.
Playtika has promoted Dor Cohen Maizles to the role of talent acquisition team lead.
Omid Reza Izadi has taken on the position of studio solutions lead at SoftGames.
Sena Esmeray has been appointed senior product specialist at TaleMonster Games.
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.
