Catalis appoints new chairman, Gary Hughes

Catalis has appointed Gary Hughes as its new chairman.

Moving into the post with immediate effect, chartered accountant Hughes brings “broad international experience as an executive across the FMCG, media, gaming and gambling sectors, and brings with him extensive PLC, private equity and non-executive experience”.

Catalis – which describes itself as “a diversified provider of development, testing and publishing services to the video games industry” – comprises of three businesses: publisher Curve and in-house development business Kuju. It also has a Testing Division, Testronic, which it says “has a premium position as a quality assurance service provider for global games companies”.

“We are very pleased to appoint Gary as our new Chairman,” said Dominic Wheatley, CEO of Catalis. “His extensive experience of the gaming sector and his strategic approach to company growth will be invaluable to Catalis as we drive the business forward through our next phase of development following the recent Northedge transaction.

“We now look forward to what’s next for Catalis over the coming months. We have a clear path to growth and a well-defined plan to achieve our ambitions and I look forward to providing exciting updates in due course.”

Private equity firm Northedge Capital recently acquired the Catalis Group when the purchase valued the company at a total of £90 million. Meanwhile Curve, which Catalis acquired in 2016, is the award-winning publisher behind games such as Human Fall Flat, the company’s biggest hit having sold 5m units of the title, and Autonauts, which won MCV’s Ukie UK Game of the show at this year’s Gamescom.

The company has also signed on to publish titles based on popular TV licences, such as the upcoming Narcos: Rise of the Cartels and an as-yet untitled Peaky Blinders game. And early this year acquired Bomber Crew develop Runner Duck. The publisher won the MCV Indie Games Publisher of the Year 2019 as well.