Take a sneak peek at some of our speakers for XDS 2023!
Electronic Arts
Marija Radulovic-Nastic
Marija Radulovic-Nastic, Chief Technology Officer
Electronic Arts
Marija Radulovic-Nastic is the Chief Technology Officer for Electronic Arts. As CTO, she leads the teams building creative tools and solutions for game makers and players. Marija is also responsible for all aspects of technology within EA Entertainment and EA SPORTS organizations, ranging from long term technology strategy, to short term execution and risk mitigation plans.
Riot Games
Molly Mason-Boule
Molly Mason-Boule, Games COO
Riot Games
Molly joined Riot in 2022 as the Head of Development Studios where she worked on a variety of M&A opportunities, and operational and team leadership priorities for the Games Pillar. Molly helps think more broadly about production and operational strategy. Her work on the decision to acquire Wargaming (Riot Sydney), leading the acquisition team for Games Pillar, doing due diligence and ultimately integrating the studio has been extremely valuable to Riot’s growth and ability to team across the globe.
Wildlife Studios
Nathalia Karmaluk
Nathalia Karmaluk, External Development Manager
Wildlife Studios
Nathalia joined Wildlife Studios in 2019 to create the company’s External Development team and establish its processes. Since then, she has helped grow the team, overseeing workflows, creating bridges with other internal departments, and managing 100+ partners from different game art disciplines, QA and UXR. She has worked on all the company’s live games and is now focused on helping create new games by building successful relationships with external partners.
Room 8 Group
Sviatoslav Pogrebnoy
Sviatoslav Pogrebnoy, Chairman
Room 8 Group
While being a gamer from his childhood, Sviatoslav began his professional journey in the gaming industry in his early 20s, being involved in PC MMO FPS game development at Vostok Games before his passion for gaming led him to become CEO of Room 8 Studio; a games development company, and later transformed to the Room 8 Group, 1700+ talent company located in more than 10 countries, the most organically fast growing company in external development globally. Family-first, challenge-driven and quality obsessed.
Riot Games
Shiew Yeu Loh
Shiew Yeu Loh, Senior Art OS Manager
Riot Games
Shiew Yeu Loh is the Senior Art Outsourcing Manager for Emerging Studio at Riot Games overseeing RND projects that are green lite for production. Before Riot, she was the Art Executive Producer at Amber Studio heading up Blockchain Game and NFT Art Production. In both places, she provides coaching and mentorship to the dev team in regards to creating mature processes, scalable and sustainable pipelines as well as deeper relationships. A game industry veteran, she started as a texture artist, a generalist and a producer in 2004 before working at Electronic Arts as the Senior External Development Artist for 14 years. During Covid in 2020, she moved onto Pocket Gems as an Art Manager to oversee the mobile game War Dragon.
Virtuos Group
Kay Arutyunyan
Kay Arutyunyan, General Manager
Virtuos Group
Kay Arutyunyan is the General Manager, and one of the original founders, of CounterPunch Studios based in Los Angeles. She approaches each new challenge and learning experience in her career with the analytical skillsets from her finance background, paired with the persistence of her entrepreneurial spirit. Building on 15 years of experience in the animation industry, Kay continues to lead her team in bringing end-to-end cinematic production support to her clients.
CounterPunch Studios joined the Virtuos Group in 2020, after a decade as a leading support provider for some of the greatest AAA games and films of all time.
Free Range Games
Aaron LeMay
Aaron LeMay, Studio Director - Corporate Development
Free Range Games
Aaron LeMay is a seasoned game developer with extensive experience in the industry. As the Studio Director at Free Range Games, he is responsible for overseeing strategic initiatives, business growth and cultivating partnerships with outsource groups in the gaming industry. He has made significant contributions to acclaimed franchises such as Red Faction, Saints Row, Destiny, and Halo, showcasing his diverse expertise in various aspects of game development.
Bungie
Dayna Smith
Dayna Smith, Producer, External Development
Bungie
Dayna Smith has been working in the Games industry for 26, very entertaining years. Beginning with an unplanned tenure in Quality Assurance at Sierra Online, she eventually found her way into the world of Production. After many years focused on internal Art Production at Monolith Productions/WB Games, she moved into an External Development focus and found her calling. You can currently find her at Bungie, working on spinning up the External Development pipeline and process for the newly announced, Marathon game.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Harish Rao
Harish Rao, Manager, Outsource Art & Concept
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Harish Rao is a seasoned veteran in the field of Game Art Production, boasting an impressive track record of over 30 years in the entertainment industry. Throughout his career, he has held influential positions at renowned global companies, including Blizzard Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, University of California Irvine, Electronic Arts, and most recently, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Riot Games
Dalma Bolech
Dalma Bolech, Outsource Manager
Riot Games
I have worked in video game development for close to 20 years. I got my start as an individual contributor being a character modeler and animator at companies such as Visual Concepts and Blue Shift. Since then I have moved into art production, outsourcing and team management at other studios such as 3DO, Secret Level, EA, Topgolf and currently Riot Games. People I have worked with, my friends and family consider me to be a “Connector”. Being the link between internal and external teams, developing and sustaining long term relationships is what I enjoy doing. Outside of game development, my top three hobbies include traveling with my family, hiking and spending as much time as possible perfecting my Argentine tango and salsa.
Phoenix Labs
Dave Sanderson
Dave Sanderson, Director of External Development
Phoenix Labs
Dave Sanderson is an eighteen-year veteran of business & creative development for games, film, and television. In 2018 Dave joined Phoenix Labs, where he leads the External Development team - a globally shared service specializing in connecting internal challenges with external solutions.
Riot Games
Caroline Calaway
Caroline Calaway, Senior Producer, XDev Workforce
Riot Games
Caroline has been in the games industry since 2013 where she started at EA as an office manager but quickly found herself helping out producers on a game team and then getting hired on as a development manager.
After working on game teams for several years, Caroline developed a passion for external development while managing a project between an EA studio and a Chinese developer/publisher. In 2017, she transitioned into an external development manager role on EA’s XDI team.
In 2022, Caroline took a Senior Producer role at Riot Games, helping launch their central external development team.
Caroline is passionate about building and maintaining healthy partnerships, influencing positive cultural change and establishing efficient process through creative problem solving and innovation.
N-iX
Daniel Poludyonny
Daniel Poludyonny, Head of Game & VR Studio, VP Delivery
N-iX
Daniel has almost 20 years of experience in game development as a Game Designer, Producer, Founder, and now Head of N-iX Game & VR Studio. Daniel oversees Studio’s business strategy, supervises service delivery, & actively contributes to customer relations.
