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AVP RealNetworks/Zylom
The Netherlands

Rutger Peters is AVP of RealNetwork's European operations. Rutger was the co-founder and CEO of Zylom before the sale to RealNetworks in February of 2006. Rutger has been in the Internet business since graduating from business school in 1997.

Prior to co-founding Zylom in July of 2001, Rutger was Vice President of Business Development at Gamegate.com. With offices in Amsterdam, London, New York and San Francisco and over 60 corporate ISP and Portal clients, Gamegate.com was a leading global provider of casual games.



co-CEO King.com
United Kingdom

King.com offers skill based tournaments, where players can compete against each other in skill games like pool or Mahjong and win prizes. Riccardo co-founded the company in 2003.

Before King.com, Riccardo joined uDate.com as Vice President Sales and Marketing Europe.  Prior to uDate he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark Capital, with the task of finding new investment opportunities. He joined Benchmark after his first online company, Spray Network, an internet portal sold to Lycos Europe in 2000.  Prior to his internet life, Riccardo worked for 8 years in consulting, at the Boston Consulting Group and LEK.



Studio Director & Founder JoJu Games
California

Juan has been involved in the casual games industry even before the casual games term was coined. He is currently focusing on the production of innovative casual games for PC, Mobile and consoles.

Previously, and as one of the first members of the Yahoo! Games team, Juan was the lead producer for the downloadable games area and community manager of multi player games. In the last year of his tenure at Yahoo!, Juan was the head of Yahoo! Games Studios, producing the first 8 mobile titles the company has released. Juan holds a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Illinois.

V.P. of Business Development, INTENIUM GmbH
Germany

Alla has been in the casual games industry since 2003 working on the managerial positions in business development, sales and marketing in Absolutist, the biggest casual games company in Ukraine. In 2007 she left the company after a year of being its CEO and continued her career as VP of Business Development with Germany-based INTENIUM, the leading European casual games distributor, publisher and developer. In this position she is responsible for the strategic directions of the game holding, cooperation with international partners, and development studio control.

She holds an MA in English and World Literature.

V.P. Business Development Game Trust
NYC

Neal Sinno has been in the casual game industry since 2005 when he joined Game Trust.

Neal Sinno has over 10+ years experience in Business Development, Product Development, and Sales. He has extensive knowledge in web-based applications, platforms and technology services. A seasoned sales and e-business product specialist, Neal has also held key leadership roles at LivePerson, Mellon Financial, The New York Times and Lucent Technologies. Neal graduated from Castleton College and is pursuing his MBA at Fordham University.




CEO FreezeTag
California

With co-founder Mick Donahoo, Craig created Freeze Tag as a casual games publisher that encourages and nurtures developers. Craig provides strategic and creative direction for Freeze Tag’s game development, marketing and distribution services. Freeze Tag casual game brands include Xango Tango, Nertz Solitaire, Classic Concentration and Etch A Sketch.

Prior to Freeze Tag, Craig founded Thumbworks in January 2002 where he drove the strategic direction of the company, overseeing both business development, licensing and carrier relations activities. While at Thumbworks, Craig and his team published over 20 mobile games titles, including hit games such as Suzuki Motocross Challenge, School of Rock Audition and Etch A Sketch. Craig and his management team sold Thumbworks to European mobile publisher In-Fusio in January, 2005.

Before starting Thumbworks, Craig founded Nine Dots, one of the top interactive marketing firms in North America whose clients included Nestle, Wells Fargo, Quaker Oats, Qualcomm and other high profile consumer brands.

He earned an MBA with a marketing emphasis from the University of Southern California (USC) and a BA in English Literature from UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles).


PR Manager Alawar Entertainment, Inc.


Before coming to Alawar, Tatiana Chernova worked as a TV journalist and the host of a program featuring notable stories about city life in Russia. After taking an interest in computer games, Tatiana joined Alawar in 2004 as a game description writer and translator. Today, she holds the position of public relations manager.  Alawar is a leading publisher specializing in the development, publication and distribution of casual games. During seven years of work in the market, Alawar published more than 100 casual games and won fans all over the world.  Tatiana holds her master’s degree in linguistics and is completing a second term to earn a degree in Economics and Management.