Marvel Entertainment - TQ Jefferson
Marvel Entertainment has announced that TQ Jefferson has been named Vice President of Production for Games. He will oversee the development of all Marvel games from concept to final release, collaborating with interactive partners like Activision, Capcom, Gazillion, Sega, THQ and Zen Studios; he'll also work with movie studios and their corresponding games.
“We at Marvel couldn’t be more pleased to announce TQ’s promotion to Vice President of Production, Games,” said Ira Rubenstein, Executive Vice President, Global Digital Media Group,Marvel Entertainment. “In the three years since he joined our team, TQ has gone to great lengths to increase the value of both our self-titled and licensed products. We look forward to seeing his continued success with the company over the next several years.”
Jefferson started his career as Quality Assurance tester at Activision, eventually leaving the company as Producer. He spent two years at Pixar Animation as Sr. Interactive Manager before joining Marvel in 2008 as Director of Games. At Marvel, he's worked on the upcoming games,Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Thor: God of Thunder and Captain America: Super Soldier, along with launching new sites and Flash-based games and helping coordinate MMOs under development.
Mothership - Rich Flier
Mothership has announced that it has hired Rich Flier as executive producer. He will lead Mothership's games marketing initiatives by collaborating with ad agencies, game publishers and developers on creative development, strategy and production of cinematics, commercials and marketing content across all platforms.
"2010 was a great year for Mothership in the games space, with projects for Microsoft Game Studios, EA, Sony Computer Entertainment, Epic Games, Disney Interactive Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Crytek Games as well as titles for Gears of War 3, TRON: Evolution, Bulletstorm, Killzone 3, Elder Scrolls and other titles,” said Mothership President Ed Ulbrich. “Our intention for 2011 is to expand our core marketing capabilities across multiple platforms with a heavy focus on games and mobile, and Rich is a rock star in this space. He has videogame production experience and has worked on huge games properties as a brand strategist and marketer. He'll help our clients and partners build solutions that leverage the expertise and quality of Mothership's marketing, technology, animation and digital production capabilities."
Flier is a 15-year games industry veteran, he got his start with Looking Glass Technologies. He worked as Director of Marketing at Sony Online Entertainment and spent several years at DDB Worldwide as an account director for the agency's Griffin Bacal and Tribal DDB divisions creating integrated campaigns for Hasbro Interactive, Sony Electronics, Mountain Dew and other Pepsi brands. Flier held the post of Marketing Director at DreamWorks Interactive, and co-founded Creative Domain's Interactive Entertainment Division (now Trailer Park), where he worked with Activision, Disney Interactive Studios, THQ, Midway Entertainment, Capcom, Vivendi Games and Ubisoft Entertainment and oversaw creative brand campaigns for Tony Hawk, Mortal Kombat, Lost Planet, Pirates of the Caribbean, 50 Cent, True Crime, Stranglehold and Gun. He worked as VP of Interactive Entertainment at 3DV Systems, which sold itself to Microsoft and formed the base of Kinect. He was most recently at Secret Identity, a games marketing company he co-founded.
"Mothership has set up a compelling model -- up and coming directing talent coupled with the digital production dynasty of Digital Domain and a history of games marketing projects that prove their ability to work in engine, create full cinematics, and develop projects across a range of pipelines,” said Flier. “This combination delivers a strong offering that I'm very much looking forward to bringing to games companies. Longer term, Mothership is building its expertise in transmedia with an eye on developing original IP. This vision is exactly in line with the work I'm interested in doing."
Neonga - Ralf Kloeppel
Neonga has announced that Ralf Kloeppel has joined the company's board. He will serve as Chief Financial Officer overseeing finance, accounting, subsidies, localization, taxes and legal.
“In the past years, I have worked very closely and successfully together with Ralf,” says Bjoern Koschin, Chief Administrative Officer at Neonga AG. “I am looking forward to him helping us continue Neonga’s success. I cannot imagine anyone better for this position!”
Kloeppel helped found gamigo AG in 1999. He joined Yusho GmbH in 2006 and helped it merge with OnlineWelten GmbH to form Frogster Online Gaming GmbH. Kloeppel joins ex-Frogster and gamigo executives Rolf Kloeppel, Benjamin Kaiser, Stefan Hinz, Bjoern Koschin and Markus Melching at Neonga.
“For me, Neonga is not just the next step of my career but a dream come true,” says Ralf Kloeppel, Chief Financial Officer at Neonga AG. “Working in a company that has such a progressive portfolio approach and which has assembled such a top-class team from junior-level to CEO is a great honour for me!”
Social Chocolate - Jane McGonigal
A startup called Social Chocolate has signed Jane McGonigal as Creative Director. Check out the complete story here.
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