a seasoned game industry generalist specializing in strategic business development, partnerships, and growth. My extensive experience spans growth strategy, data analytics, event production, game production, marketing, mobile publishing, and trademark management.
Commitment. Consistency.
Passion.
Let me be your business development
Super-Saiyajin.
That's me
I am a trained paramedic who pursued the ambitious goal of becoming a dentist. Although I didn’t succeed, that failure turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me. It pushed me to reassess my true purpose and ultimately led me to break into the games industry. A perfect match because games have been part of my DNA since the 1980s when I put numerous C64 Joysticks into dysfunction. Today, I'm a seasoned game industry professional with over a decade of expertise in the game industry and a "swiss-army-knife" range of skills, an M-shaped generalist with a focus on business development, partnerships, and growth.
To me, business development is an incredibly rewarding role that addresses different objectives depending on the stage of a business. From making a young and aspiring game studio and its products "battle-ready", to building strong relationships with strategic partners to accelerate growth, to using IP as leverage to enter markets at advantageous conditions. Business development is the never-ending hunt for growth. I love it and I excel at it.
Example Work
(click/tap on pictures for more info)
Major Achievements &
Interests
>>> Growing an independent mobile game studio from 9 to 21 employees while maintaining profitability and reaching an organic growth of 235.1% in 2020 putting the studio into the FT1000.
SEAL.GAMES is a privately held game developer and self-publisher of free-2-play mid-core mobile games. Founded in 2005, the studio was amongst the first browser game developers in Germany and operated out of its own cash flow since day one. Barely surviving the consolidation phase of 2014/2015, the company transitioned from web to mobile following a strategy of producing adoptable niche strategy games.
I was hired in 2016 with the objective of growing the company and its revenue through any means I would consider meaningful. I performed business and market analyses and successfully established strategic and operational partnerships with platforms, technology, and service providers putting SEAL.GAMES in a position with frequent features on relevant platforms, access to agency-level marketing solutions, as well as access to programmatic UA at a time when this technology was available only to top-tier mobile publishers.
I initiated the professionalization of departments and processes through knowledge transfer, defined brand strategy, implemented data analytics, and ideated exceptional game features. My activities significantly contributed to the growth of the company putting it into the Financial Times 1000: List of Europe’s fastest-growing companies in 2020. The studio itself grew from 9 to 21 employees by 2023.
>>> Ideation and production of one of Europe's largest non-profit game developer conferences and lobbying to establish a 4 million EUR public funding program
The City of Kiel approached SEAL.GAMES in 2018 with the desire for a game development event during Digital Week Kiel. It was the kickoff for a full-fledged professional conference experience organized as a non-profit event that drew 550 guests from 20 nations. The second edition that we hosted in 2023 was a huge success, too, and our effort led to the establishment of a regional public funding program amounting to 4 million euros.
As Head of Business Development, I effectively covered 5 roles: Event Producer, Program Director, Speaker Acquisition Manager, Sponsors and Sales Manager, and PR and Partnerships Manager. Despite a limited budget (upper half 5 figures) and the objective to organize the event as a non-profit endeavor, the outcome was a professional-scale conference experience at a remarkably inexpensive ticket price. Providing a huge number of free tickets to universities and students onboarded representatives of the educational system. Both editions produced a slight deficit (low four digits), which may be overlooked as SEAL.GAMES now has access to the newly established public funding program effectively granting 200.000 EUR for each approved project.
I established a partner network consisting of more than 30 international organizations including conferences, media clusters, and associations, and onboarded sponsors that could draw value and meaningful connections out of our event. Furthermore, I brought more than 130 renowned industry veterans to Kiel, including industry legends such as Kate Edwards, Teut Weidemann, Jana Stadeler, Fawzi Mesmar, Patrik Wilkens, Attila Szantner, and many more.
>>> From connecting people with overlapping interests to knowledge sharing and public speaking to experiments with generative AI and automation to playing video games to jury work to playing the guitar and practicing Taekwondo. I'm always curious and hungry for more.
As a believer in networking karma, I proactively connect people with overlapping interests. A wonderful example would be connecting promising Indies to the right publisher or connecting educational and research organizations with tech and gaming companies for the purpose of Citizen Science or Remembrance Culture. This collaborative mindset has resulted in me being widely respected in the game industry and beyond for my dedication, valuable feedback and collaborative nature.
I love to help other people. Due to my broad expertise, I was invited to GDC's mentor program in 2020. Through my activity as a jury member for various awards ranging from the German Developer Award (DEP) to the international Indiecup (Germany & CEE), I had the privilege to provide valuable feedback to developers from around the world helping them to set foot in our beloved industry. I'm a valued speaker and moderator at major conferences such as devcom, Pocket Gamer Connects, and Hamburg Games Conference, and represent the games industry at political events.
In my free time, I love to play competitive online games, produce music with the guitar and DAWs, and practice traditional Taekwondo. DIY and carpentry are also things that I largely enjoy for example crafting theater backdrops in our driveway for my kid's Halloween and Birthday parties.