Serious Games International Hires Interactive Entertainment Heavyweights

Games techniques applied to corporate worlds

Posted by Staff
November 14th, 2012, Coventry, UK: Following the recent appointment of Mike Hayes as Executive Chairman, Serious Games International (SGIL) is building on its strategy of harnessing heavyweight games industry experience alongside senior academics with the appointment of senior personnel including Mark Stanger, Gary Knight, Paul Ranson, Felix Bradshaw and Mark Cottam.

“The senior team that we’re building here will work with our colleagues in academia to bring a fresh but proven perspective to the business of applying games techniques to serious software solutions,” says Tim Luft, Managing Director of SGIL, and formerly a director of the Centre for Urban Intelligence and the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University. “The potential is massive: global revenues in this market are predicted to double over the next three years.*”

Commercial Director Mark Stanger has 20 years experience in interactive entertainment having worked for a number of major publishers, including Eidos and Warner Bros. Most recently he was responsible for establishing European operations for the social web analytics firm Kontagent. Mark will co-ordinate all commercial operations at SGIL.

SGIL has brought in Gary Knight as a content and branding consultant. Gary is a former senior vice president of marketing for Sega, where he oversaw the company’s content and brand strategy across Europe and North America.

Development Director Paul Ranson is in charge of the creative studio at SGIL. Before joining SGIL, Paul was Managing Director of Slam Productions, a former Develop ‘Top 100’ studio. Prior to that, Paul was founder and MD at two other games studios, Aqua Pacific, and Big Red and also worked at the games publisher Codemasters.

Felix Bradshaw, is leading the business development efforts at SGIL. Felix spent eight years in videogames publishing with stints at Codemasters, South Peak and 7Sixty before joining the new studio.

And finally, Mark Cottam heads up SGIL’s new US office as VP of Business Development and operations, having joined the company from Mumbojumbo where he was CEO. Under Mark’s direction, MumboJumbo became a leading developer and publisher of games for online and mobile distribution and the preferred publisher of premium casual games for the retail channel.

“From both a commercial and development perspective we have quickly established a world-class team here at Serious Games International,” says Mark Stanger. “We look forward to making an immediate and significant impact in the world of serious games, games-based learning and corporate apps.”

*Source: Ambient Insight Research: The 2011-2016 Worldwide Game-based Learning Market: All Roads Lead To Mobile

About Serious Games International
Serious Games International Ltd (SGIL) combines industry leading games development talent with world class academic research in the arena of serious games, games-based learning, visualisation technologies and corporate apps.

From its headquarters in the Coventry University Technology Park SGIL is approaching the market globally with offices in Singapore and the USA with innovative technologies and applications.

The company has the development expertise to support projects on mobile devices, tablet PCs and web browsers. Its range of proprietary technologies can be modified for an almost limitless range of applications.

Visit the company’s website at www.seriousgamesinternational.com/ for more details.