Women In Games Awards: Meet The Finalists – Businesswoman of the Year

There are just four weeks to go until we celebrate the Top 30 Women in Games and the winners of the six special categories are announced.

The Women in Games Awards take place on May 19th at the Hamyard Hotel, London. Tickets cost just 49 and are available by simply clicking here. The awards, held in conjunction with the Women in Games (WIGJ) body and sponsored by Facebook, will shine the spotlight on the most influential and inspirational women in the UK games industry.

Here we take a look at those in the running for the Businesswoman of the Year award…

Debbie Bestwick – MD, Team 17

As Team 17 celebrates its 25th birthday, much of the company’s drive has been led by Bestwick. She perfectly timed the opportunity to move Team 17 into the digital publishing space but has also kept a stable of successful IP running, taking advantage of new platforms, new distribution methods and new business models. Larger publishers and console manufacturer haven’t been able to maintain the kind of longevity that Bestwick has created at Team 17. She was named Person of the Year at the MCV Awards last year.

Angela Dickson – Sales Director, Activision

Dickson is responsible for the sales and commercial strategy for all Activision/Blizzard titles, working across some of the world’s biggest entertainment franchises including Call of Duty, Destiny, Skylanders and World of Warcraft.

Louise Gaynor – CEO, Target Media

Gaynor has over 20 years’ experience in media within both client and agency roles. After eight years in marketing at Virgin Interactive Entertainment the poacher became the gamekeeper and Gaynor moved to agency land. Planning and buying for more than 500 launches, with many pioneering campaigns to her name, Gaynor stepped up to COO of Target Media in 2010.

Sam Glasscoe – Business Unit Controller, Warner Home Entertainment

Sam has eight years of experience at Warner Bros., working through the ranks across DVD, Games, Digital and Consumer Products.Sam has championed cross category activity for Online and New Business with continued success in all areas.

Charlotte Knight, UK Retail MD, GAME

Charlotte Knight has been with GAME for 14 years. Starting her career in the games industry as a PA, Knight moved over to the commercial side of the business as a junior buyer. Since she has risen up to category director, and last year was promoted to the role of the MD of GAME’s UK Retail division and is now responsible for all commercial activity in the UK.

Veronique Lallier – VP European Publishing, Hi-Rez Studios

Smite developer Hi-Rez secured the services of former Warner Bros VP of digital publishing Veronique Lallier earlier this year. Based in Hi-Rez’s new Brighton office, Lallier serves as VP of European publishing. She has previously worked at Ubisoft and NCsoft.

Caroline Miller – Director, Indigo Pearl

Indigo Pearl had one of its most profitable years in 2015, overcoming a very tricky 2014. It has twice won the Agency category at the MCV Awards, won pitches for Zynga, Codemasters, Rock Band 4 and Games London and EPIC. Indigo Pearl also runs press websites for publishers like Sony, Ubisoft, Activision, Bethesda, Capcom, Warner, and Konami to name a few. It was under the digital solutions part of Indigo Pearl that it launched DigitalXtra.net which solves the problem of disseminating digital code quickly and securely. This has now become Sony’s method of distributing keys all over Europe.

Kat Osman, MD, Lick PR

Turning away from her degree in geological engineering not long after graduation, Osman started at Herald Communications/Fleishman Hillard as a temp, before being offered a full time position on the consumer tech team. Osman formed Lick PR with fellow ex-Lunch PR members Lucy Starvis, Ian Dickson and Colette Barr in 2014.

Vicki Peggs – MD, Universally Speaking

An industry veteran of over 20 years, Peggs successfully founded and has run localization and QA agency Universally Speaking for the past 14 years.Alongside, guiding the strategy and success of Universally Speaking, in 2014 Peggs founded Universally Apps and now consults and invests in other areas of the industry.

She actively promotes the role of women in the industry and Universally Speaking has a headcount of around 50 per cent women.

Ella Romanos – Founder, Altara Games

Romanos founded Altara Games in July 2015 to help developers by providing loans against VGTR. To date the company has loaned out money to a value of 1.5M, making significant profits whilst helping developers to cash flow their game projects and grow. Romana is described as having the ability to turn her hands to a multitude of tasks including game development, business development and funding – for example, working with Altara Games, which gives loans against VGTR, and Tenshi grants which helps devs to access grant funding. Not only does she bring so much to the industry in the work she does on a professional note, she gives more in terms of talks, events, working with schools and educational institutions

The MCV Women In Games event takes place at the Hamyard Hotel, London on Thursday May 19th. Tickets are priced at just 49 and are available by clickinghere.

A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are available. ContactLesley McDiarmidorConor Tallonto find out more.