Enthusiast Gaming Gets New President
This and other moves this week in the esports/gaming industry.
As noted earlier in the week (see my message here) this will be the last People on the Move as a separate newsletter from my other publication, The Fudge Retort. What this means is if you are not signed up to that other newsletter, you won’t get it in your inbox next week. Of course, you don’t have to sign up for the other newsletter—you can read it for free on Substack—but I would appreciate your continued support. With that housekeeping out of the way, here are this week’s biggest moves - James Fudge.
Enthusiast Game’s New President, NFL Exec Joins Riot Games
Games industry veteran Bill Karamouzis has joined Vancouver Titans, Luminosity Gaming, and Seattle Surge owner Enthusiast Gaming as its new president. Karamouzis is the founder of Addicting Games, TeachMe, gaming portal network Hallpass Media, and served as the senior vice president at game developer Jam City for more than a year. In his new role, Karamouzis will be in charge of the company’s operations, growth strategies, and product development, among other things.
Max Boigon has left his role at the National Football League (NFL) to join Riot Games as its new head of strategic alliances & partnerships. Boigon spent more than six years at the NFL in various roles including direct-to-consumer partnerships and marketing, subscription products, and product marketing. Prior to that launched and operated Advanced Sports Media Group for nine years and served as a marketing manager at AEG Worldwide.
Dylan Hornibrook joined LeagueSpot as its new VP of marketing in September. Hornibrook most recently worked at The Goat Agency for more than a year handling accounts like Alienware and negotiating deals with top influencers around the world. Prior to that he worked for Austin-based agency Double A for three years in various roles including strategic marketing manager and esports marketing manager. Hornibrook has worked in similar roles at Razer and served as a gaming and esports consultant for The Coca-Cola Company in the early, burgeoning days of professional esports.
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Esports:
Frank Rinaldi has been promoted to the role of chief of staff, esports operations at Riot Games.
Arıl Bozoluk has been promoted to the role of engineering manager - esports game & broadcast features at Riot Games.
Parla Esports Founder Yaman Kargin joins Riot Games Berlin as a content operations specialist.
Milly (Preston) Clay has joined ESL FACEIT as its new VP of digital platform marketing.
Aaron J Linde joins TGS Esports as its new director of community—Linde spent seven years working at DreamHack.
Lucas Gabriel Pugliese returns to esports league Liga de Videojuegos Profesional (LVP) as a producer. He left the Spain-based league earlier this year to pursue other opportunities.
ESTV and TVK24 Founder Eric Yoon has added a new advisory role to his resume: broadcast committee advisor to the National Esports Collegiate Conference.
Entertainment and gaming-focused attorney Ryan Fairchild joins Odin Law and Media with a focus on practicing law related to video games, content creation, and esports.
Jasmine Randolph has taken on an additional role as a project manager for Skullz Gear. Randolph is also the founder of esports organization Team Inferno and a content creator.
Gaming:
Vicki Ferguson joins Respawn Entertainment as technical director of the Apex Platform Group. Ferguson spent more than eight years at Ubisoft Montreal as a programmer working on the Far Cry franchise.
Former Amazon and Apple exec Kyungheon Kim joins Seoul-based game maker NPIXEL as chief operating officer.
Former Garena social media associate Silaj Mondal finds a new home at EA India as a community specialist.
Andre Santos joins Eidos Montreal as its new lead level artist—he spent more than 16 years working at Dragon Age and Mass Effect maker BioWare.
Other:
Former Electric Playground co-host, Heavily Pixelated founder, and games writer Scott C. Jones joins EA as an experiential writer.
Former Newsweek and Washington Post writer N'Gai Croal joins Microsoft as editorial director of Microsoft Game Dev.
Anthony John Agnello takes on the role of creative strategy lead at IGN Entertainment.
Geoffrey Summerville joins Anzu.io as its new EVP of global growth.
Lou Frangella exits FTX to join Kraken Digital Asset Exchange as head of brand partnerships—Frangella has done stints at MLB, The Howard Hughes Corporation, and American Express.
David Picioski leaves his role as the lead for marketing sports on Prime Video to join Wilson Sporting Goods as head of global marketing partnerships & collaborations, team sports.
Jessica Speigel exits HBO to join Fanatics as VP of product design.
In Other News
🛑 Riot Forge games Convergence and Song of Nunu get delayed.
🤦♀️ Activision Blizzard exec accused by union of "anti-union propaganda."
👎🏽 Court of Appeal denies Activision Blizzard petition to dismiss lawsuit.
👊 Pro gamer Stevie Case opens up about game industry sexism.
🐼 Steelcase sponsors the Panda Cup.
💰 GameSquare Esports issues 2023 rev guidance of $45M - $50M USD for FY 2022.
🔮 Rivalry and Low6 launch "free-to-play pick’em" esports game.