Our Board

Personal Biographies for the Members of the IGEA Board

Amy Roy, General Counsel, Nintendo Australia and New Zealand (Chair)

As Nintendo’s In-House Legal Counsel for Australia and New Zealand, Amy Roy is responsible for providing legal and risk management advice and for the protection of the great Nintendo brand. Amy qualified as a lawyer in Australia in 2002 then spent many years in the UK as a solicitor and advocate before coming back to take on the General Counsel role at Boost Juice where she was integral in driving the global intellectual property strategy at the height of the brand’s rise.

Amy joined the Nintendo team in 2010 and has been involved in the launch of multiple consoles and games from the Nintendo 3DS through to the Nintendo Switch.

Amy offers a diverse and strategic skill set and empowers those around her to take action.  Having been nominated previously for the Women in Gaming Awards, Amy takes on this board role with excitement and a passion for change.

Amy assumed the role of Chair of the IGEA board in 2023.

Clara Reeves, CEO, Hipster Whale (Vice Chair)

Clara Reeves is a veteran of Australian game development, having made her start at Atari in QA more than a decade ago, before moving to a Producer role at Krome Studios.

More recently, Clara was the Manager of Games, Digital Content and Animation at Film Victoria before joining Hipster Whale as CEO in 2016.

Clara assumed the role of Vice Chair of the IGEA board in 2024.

Cheryl Vance, Co-Founder and Director, Prideful Sloth

Cheryl is the Co-Founder and Design Director of Prideful Sloth, the indie game studio behind titles like Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles, Grow: Song of the Evertree, and Go-Go Town!.

With over 20 years of experience in game development, spanning both indie and AAA projects, Cheryl has held key roles at several studios, focusing on project management and production.
Cheryl is a passionate advocate for innovation and collaboration within the Australian games industry.

Dean Glover, National Sales Director, Take 2

Dean has worked in the Entertainment Industry for over 20 years. During this time he has held various roles with Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Electronic Arts and Take Two Interactive.

In his current role as Senior Director, ANZ Sales with Take Two Interactive Dean over see’s operations across both Australia and New Zealand.

Josh Cavaleri, Senior Legal Counsel, Electronic Arts

Josh Cavaleri has extensive experience providing legal and policy support for Australia’s video games industry, including developers, publishers, distributors, online retailers and the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA).

In 2012, after several years in private practice supporting the Media and Entertainment industry, Josh joined IGEA as Legal and Policy Counsel. During this time, Josh supported the industry on a range of important industry-wide policy issues, including the introduction of the R18+ classification, the development and implementation of the International Age Rating Council’s (IARC) rating tool in Australia, updating Australia’s approach to the classification of game modifications (Downloadable Content and other Live Services), and helping to represent the industry on issues such as in-game purchasing, privacy, consumer law and cyber safety.

Since 2015, as Legal Counsel for Electronic Arts, Josh has been proving legal support for Electronic Arts’ Firemonkeys studio (with great games such as Real Racing 3, Need For Speed: No Limits, The Sims Mobile and The Sims FreePlay) and Electronic Arts’ publishing business in Australia, New Zealand and the wider APAC region.

Madeline Shepherd, Director, Digital Safety – Asia,  Microsoft

Madeline Shepherd (she/her) is Director, Digital Safety – Asia at Microsoft, where she leads the company’s work on online safety, trust and responsible technology across Asia Pacific. She works with governments, regulators and industry partners on a range of policy issues affecting the digital ecosystem, including child online protection, content regulation, age assurance and digital literacy.

Madeline brings extensive experience at the intersection of technology, policy and public affairs, with a particular focus on helping create safer online experiences for players and families. She is passionate about ensuring games continue to be recognised as a positive and valuable part of the digital lives of millions of Australians.

Prior to Microsoft, Madeline worked in online safety, countering violent extremism and cyber security awareness roles across the New Zealand and Victorian Governments.

Manea Castet, Studio Manager, Gameloft

Manea Castet is an experienced entrepreneur with a 16-year tenure in the video game industry. Currently in the role of Studio Manager at Gameloft Brisbane, Manea specializes in leading teams to develop quality games while balancing creativity and performance effectively.

In 2009, Manea founded his own company, overseeing a team of 25+ individuals for seven successful years, contributing to the development of notable games and applications. Subsequently, in 2016, he joined Gameloft Montréal as a Game Manager, where he managed 110+ people teams and played a crucial role in projects such as Dungeon Hunter Champions and Lego Star Wars Castaways.

Worth mentioning is Manea’s contribution as the Lead Producer of Disney Dreamlight Valley, a cross-platform title that received recognition as a BAFTA nominee and Webby Award winner.

Mike Kolodzinski, Senior Director – Sales & Marketing, Ubisoft Pty Ltd

Mike has over 20 years’ experience in the interactive entertainment industry. He started this journey in New Zealand working for Monaco Corporation who were the distributors for Nintendo at that time. After several years, Mike made a move “across the ditch” to take up a senior leadership position at THQ. Mike then went onto Ubisoft Pty Ltd, where he is currently the Senior Director for Sales & Marketing, responsible for both the Australian & New Zealand markets.

Naresh Hirani, Head of Studio, Riot Games Sydney

Naresh Hirani is the Head of Studio at Riot Games Sydney with over 30 years of experience in game development. His career includes leadership and development roles across globally recognised titles such as Wipeout 3, The Getaway, The Getaway: Black Monday, Gangs of London and the award-winning L.A. Noire, which received multiple BAFTA nominations.

After overseeing development at Wargaming Sydney, Naresh led the studio’s integration into Riot Games. He now heads Riot Games Sydney, a major co-development studio contributing to the ongoing development of League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, 2XKO and Riot’s core technology platforms. His leadership focuses on technical excellence, scalable delivery and building high-performing teams that support Riot’s global games.

Naresh is a strong advocate for the Australian games industry, working closely with government, education and sector partners to strengthen talent pathways and long-term ecosystem growth. He also serves on the NSW Screen and Digital Games Industries Advisory Committee.

Patrick Lagana, Director of Marketing, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Australia & New Zealand

Ross Symons, CEO, Big Ant Studios

Ross was first published in 1979, very soon after writing a number of internationally published books on programming, graphics, and games in the 1980’s. His specialty has been his ability to combine leading edge technology, video games and sport, including being the first to introduce non-linear video and real-time, game-day, AI driven predictive play analysis into the NFL in the 1990’s. He has a long history of forthright industry advocacy with government and media, and personal financial support, providing decades of sponsorship and donations to events and organisations that are particularly involved in education, equity, and diversity both inside and outside of the video games industry, and has also directly invested in many independent developers across Australia. Ross is the CEO of Big Ant Studios, best known for their sports titles, which he founded in 2001 and sold to Nacon in 2021. Ross was involved in the genesis of the Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) in 2000, going on to be its longest serving director, he provided the building and finance that enabled the first Arcade in Melbourne, and is a co-founder of GCAP.

TJ Munusamy, EVP – Business Development, PlaySide Studios

TJ Munusamy oversees the organisations ‘work-for-hire’ division and is responsible for all business development and licensing activities. With 14+ years in the games industry TJ has an extensive background in leadership, sales, development and production. During his decade long tenure at PlaySide, TJ has worked in both leadership and business development roles, building the studio up from a small team of 4 to more than 215 people. The studio is now the largest independent games developer in Australia and is still seeing growth.

Prior to PlaySide, TJ worked at both EA console (Visceral Games) and EA mobile (Firemonkeys) studios, along with several independent local Australian studios too. TJ has been apart of the game development or business development of many franchises over the years in his gaming career including Dead Space, The Sims, Need for Speed, Spongebob, The Walking Dead and Batman, just to name a few.

Tom Davies, Regional Director for Game Development APAC, Keywords Studios.

In his role, Tom oversees 19 game development studios and 1800 people across the APAC region delivering games for publishers from around the world covering every genre and platform. He has worked at Keywords Studios since 2020 helping expand their operations in Australia from one studio location to 4 locations and more recently taking on responsibility for Asia. His previous experience was supporting the growth and development of technology businesses in Australia and prior to that worked as a strategy consultant and venture capitalist covering the technology and media industries.