Ins and Outs – March 2021’s industry hires roundup

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

We start this month’s  roundup of job movers at Curve Digital, where the publisher has announced three new hires.

First, Jarvis Crofts joins as VP of commercial and publishing strategy. Crofts was previously at Sega Europe, where he had spent the past nine years working as director of commercial analysis.

Also at Curve Digital, James Gourlay joins as director of digital strategy. Like Crofts, Gourlay also joins Curve Digital from Sega Europe. Gourlay had held a number of roles at Sega, having joined in 2011 as a QA functional lead, before being promoted through the ranks to become senior product launch manager in 2018.

Finally at Curve Digital, Ian Buckley has been named as the company’s new CFO. Buckley joins from Blast, the esports network, having held the title of CFO previously at Wildstone and Global Live and Financial Control Director at Vue entertainment.

There’s been a change-up over at Eurogamer, with three new promotions at the website.

First, after ten years at Eurogamer, Wesley Yin-Poole has been promoted to editor. According to editor in chief Oli Welsh, “Wes believes passionately in improving the standards of reporting around video games; he’s also the architect of our internship scheme and a wonderful boss, mentor and friend. I’m really excited to see what he will do with the site.”

Next up at Eurogamer, Martin Robinson is stepping into Yin-Poole’s  former role as deputy editor. Robinson was previously Eurogamer’s features and reviews editor,  having joined the website from IGN back in 2011.

Finally, Matthew Reynolds’ job title changes from guides editor to associate editor. Reynolds has been at Eurogamer for four years now, having joined in 2016 having previously worked for Digital Spy as their gaming editor.

Sumo Digital announced two major new hires at the company.

Chris Black joins Sumo’s Sheffield studio as an art director with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry. Black has worked on over 50 titles from PlayStation’s TOCA series to Worms Rumble and Overcooked 2.

Also at Sumo, Hollie Pattison joins the Sumo Digital team as marketing manager. Pattison has been responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of numerous marketing campaigns.

Publisher Inkitt has announced that Pavel Murnikov has joined the company as VP of engineering. Prior to joining Inkitt, Murnikov was VP of technology at US esports and video game company Activision Blizzard.

Sean Cleaver has joined Blaze Entertainment as its new marketing manager. He just spent 3 years at Asus, and before that wrote for DEVELOP.

Heaven Media has two new hires to shout about.

First, Mike McKay, joins Heaven Media’s senior leadership team as operations director and is responsible for managing resources, and developing and implementing the firm’s operational plan.

Next up is Nicole Hall who joins as the newest member of Heaven Media’s PR team. Nicole was previously a freelance writer, with by-lines in the likes of The Daily Star, OPM and Eurogamer.

Brighton-based Snap Finger Click has appointed Florence Burchill as their new production assistant. Burchill is a  recent graduate from the University of Sussex.

QA, localisation and compliance specialist Testronic has appointed Stephen Watford as their chief operating officer. Watford has previously held chief financial and operational roles at both AKA Group and Havas Media UK

d3t has expanded its senior leadership team with the appointment of new head of production, Mike Cox. Cox has been working in game development since 1994. Having held senior positions at EA, Kuju and Exient he brings a wealth of experience across a range of diverse projects.

Hiro Capital has hired industry veteran and deep monetisation expert Nicholas Lovell in the role of venture specialist, free to play games. Lovell is the founder of Gamesbrief, a website dedicated to the business of games, and a successful author of multiple books on game design and monetisation.

After almost four years at Trusted Reviews, Jade King is leaving to join TheGamer as the site’s new features editor.

Industry veteran David Tyler has joined Tencent as director of global marketing for PC and console games. Tyler has over 20 years of experience, including 13 spent at Activision Blizzard.

Got an appointment you’d like to share with us? Email Chris Wallace at chris.wallace@biz-media.co.uk