CastAR hires PlayStation veteran Peter Dille as CMO
Jobs roundup: AR startup bolsters leadership team, David Brevik advising on Path of Exile, Team Dignitas gets a CEO, and Disrupter Beam hires a chief data officer
CastAR appoints Peter Dille as new CMO - The growing mixed reality company continued an impressive run of new hires with three major additions to its team. Peter Dille joins as CMO, the same position he held at his last company, Tapjoy. Dille was also a senior vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment from PlayStation to PlayStation 3, and SVP of worldwide marketing at THQ. CastAR has also hired Tesla and TiVo veteran Mel Heydari as its head of talent, and ex-Activision hardware director Arnie Sen as VP of engineering. "We continue to build out our executive ranks with industry all-stars," said CEO Darrell Rodriguez, the former LucasArts president who joined the the company in August this year.
Ex-Eidos COO Jonathan Kemp takes the lead at Team Dignitas - Less than a month after its acquisition by the Philadelphia 76ers, the new and improved eSports team has a new CEO: Jonathan Kemp, the former COO of Eidos, who also worked with the International Olympic Committee for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Team Dignitas chairman Greg Richardson cited Kemp's unique combination of sports and games industry experience as the reason he was selected for the role.
Disruptor Beam appoints chief data officer - With The Walking Dead: March to War now in full development, Disruptor Beam has strengthened its data and analytics team with the appointment of Andy Rappaport as CDO. While not a longstanding member of the games industry, Rappaport has a track record of senior data architecture roles at Boston-based tech companies, including Ability Network, Core Security Tech and gamerDNA. In addition to The Walking Dead, Rappaport will also oversee Star Trek Timelines and Game of Thrones Ascent.
David Brevik is now an advisor on Path of Exile - Following a cryptic tweet about joining the team of a prominent action-RPG, David Brevik dashed hopes that he might be working with Blizzard on a new Diablo game by revealing he was referring to Grinding Gear's Path of Exile. According to Grinding Gear's Chris Wilson, Brevik will help with the game's launch in mainland China.
Spyr looks to eSports by appointing Mike Turner - Keen to take Pocket Starships in "a more competitive direction," Spyr has hired Wargaming's Mike Turner as vice president of strategic partnerships. While at Wargaming America, Turner was instrumental to the company's eSports activities in the region, building relationships with Twitch, Intel and Nvidia, among others. Turner will launch a new eSports division for Spyr, while also using his experience as a vice president at iDreamSky to seek partnerships in Asian markets.
Green Man Gaming adds to its board - The rising retailer has welcomed Faisal Galaria as non-executive director and board member. Galaria is currently chief strategy and investments officer at Gocompare, and he has held executive roles at Spotify and Skype, among others.