Megan Gaiser
CEO and President, Her Interactive
    
Established in 1995, Her Interactive is the pioneer of games targeted towards female play preferences. Gaiser is responsible for corporate strategy as well as day-to-day operations of the company. Under her stewardship, the company has nearly quadrupled revenues and achieved combined worldwide sales of over three million units for its Nancy Drew PC games, outselling Harry Potter, Myst and Lord of the Rings as the #1 PC adventure franchise. Gaiser notes, “Our team has helped debunk the myth that women and girls are technophobes and are uninterested in computer gaming.  With the success of our Nancy Drew game series, we have proven that there is a significant and vibrant market for females."

Beverly Garland
Art Production Manager, NCsoft

Garland oversees art tasks for NCsoft’s MMORPG, Tabula Rasa, plus manages outsourcing tasks. She entered the industry as the first art intern at Origin Systems. After modeling and animating on Wing Commander: Privateer and Ultima VIII, she was lead artist and animator for Crusader: No Remorse. Garland notes, "As one of the earliest female artists employed at Origin, I’m one of the few women to have become an accomplished animator, as well as advance to several lead artist roles and to directing an art department. I was generally one of maybe two women in any given project or department. I like to think that I opened the door for more women artists, art directors and managers in the industry."

 


Jillian Goldberg
VP of Marketing, BioWare/Pandemic Studios
                        
Prior to overseeing marketing for BioWare and Pandemic franchises, Goldberg was vice president of marketing for Electronic Arts, where she was responsible for driving aspects of global marketing strategy, licensor relationships and studio partnerships for key franchises.  Of her current role, she remarks, "We want to create broad-ranging, diverse entertainment that is inclusive to females searching for new entertainment experiences, ultimately creating an industry that rewards ideas and innovation rather than relying on gender typing for decision making."

Mona Hamilton
Vice President of Marketing, Midway Games

Hamilton is responsible for leading a product marketing team who has launched million-unit selling products, including Mortal Kombat Deception, NBA Ballers and Blitz the League. Mona previously worked at Ubisoft Entertainment, as a Group Brand Manager overseeing franchises such as Prince of Persia and Rayman. She says, "There’s no doubt that this a very male dominated industry, but my objectives are the same as any man in the same role – to market and sell great videogames to our various target audiences. I do feel that certain leadership skills really come into play from being a woman – such as having a woman’s instinct, a nurturing sense, and also being the glue that really holds things together."

Robin Harper
VP Community Development and Support, Linden Lab

Harper helped build the Second Life brand, and is currently responsible for shaping the evolution of the rapidly growing community of Second Life users. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Harper was the vice president of marketing at Maxis, where she established SimCity as one of the most recognized brand names in entertainment software, and was named one of the marketing 100 by Advertising Age/Newsweek. She says, “I make it a priority to include Second Life Residents wherever possible in our design thinking, with programs and feedback systems that give them a voice in shaping the world.  The result is an extraordinarily motivated and innovative population with a tremendous stake in our success.”

Amy Hennig
Game Director, Naughty Dog

As the game director for Jak3, and a new PS3 project at Naughty Dog, Hennig handles overall direction of the game design and implementation, overseeing the project as a whole. With 17 years as a game developer under her belt, Hennig started out as an artist and animator in the 8- and 16-bit era before moving into the game design field. Her big break in game design came while working at Electronic Arts, in a role which eventually led her to Crystal Dynamics -- first as design manager and then as a director -- where she led the development of the Soul Reaver/Legacy of Kain series.  

Michelle Hinn
Vice President, Game Division at DonationCoder.com

Hinn is Chairperson, IGDA Game Accessibility Special Interest Group, which channels information to the game community to support creation of mainstream games that are universally accessible to all, regardless of disability. She speaks at and organizes accessibility tutorials for major game industry events. Michelle also teaches game design classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This includes teaching in a Living/Learning Community for Women in Math, Science, and Engineering, so her game design class is comprised of 100% female undergraduates. Michelle has worked at Microsoft Game Studios and has consulted for numerous game design studios, both in industry and academia.

Erin Hoffman
Game Designer, 1st Playable Productions

Erin Hoffman is famous for authoring an online essay under the pseudonym ‘ea_spouse’ that garnered thousands of responses from within and without the games industry, as well as media coverage that put a spotlight on quality of life issues in game and software development. She is the co-founder of Gamewatch.org, an industry watchdog site focusing on quality of life, and is active with the IGDA Quality of Life Committee and ECQC Task Force. "My work on quality of life issues definitely resonates strongly with women, who tend to have a greater societal onus to put family first and career second. The fact is that greater diversity makes us healthier as an industry and improves the games that we make," she states.

Dana Jongewaard
Managing Editor, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine

Dana Jongewaard is the managing editor of OPM, where she has been coordinating videogame coverage since 2003. Prior to that, she was the managing editor for Computer Gaming World, which afforded her a safe haven from her previous life as a junior high teacher. She was a panel host at the inaugural North American Women in Gaming conference, and has been interviewed in mainstream media outlets such as CNN Headline News, USA Today, and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Helene Juguet
Director of U.S. Marketing, Ubisoft

Helene Juguet started at Ubisoft as an international brand manager in Paris. She then moved to the U.S. to oversee promotions for all of Ubisoft’s video game franchises, launching Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell brands to become two of their top franchises. Today, Helene oversees marketing strategies for all of Ubisoft’s titles. She notes, "As marketers, our ambition is to grow our consumer market by triggering the desire to play our games in as many people as possible. The challenge is in making gaming part of a lifestyle and not the geeky hobby it still represents to a lot of people. I try to a different point of view to my team by challenging them to step outside of that ’gamer state’ of mind."