The IGEA team consists of 6 full time staff.
RON CURRY, CEO
RAELENE KNOWLES, COO
Raelene joined IGEA in 2009 after working for many years in various Marketing, PR and Sales roles for first and third party publishers for video games in the ANZ marketplace.
Raelene is responsible for managing IGEA’s communication, events and research projects. She also is responsible for membership services, running internal and external events and programs for members. These range from quarterly member meetings through to women’s workshops, trivia nights and the famous IGEA Football Tournament.
Raelene enjoys providing evidence, facts and stories around who plays games, who makes games and the potential games and game development have for society. IGEA’s research provides the foundation for all advocacy and policy work.
BEN AU, Director of Policy & Government Affairs
Ben brings to IGEA a wealth of government expertise. Ben is responsible for monitoring, identifying and advising members on current and emerging policy and regulatory issues affecting the industry. His focus is to work proactively with members and governments to help drive the video games sector forward.
Prior to IGEA, Ben was a manager in the Office of the eSafety Commissioner and was previously the director of classification policy and research at the Department of Communications and the Arts, where he also helped to lead the Government’s 2017 review of Australian and children’s screen content policy and funding. Ben spent many years in Canberra in the Attorney-General’s Department and then the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet where he advised on cyber policies.
Ben loves games and has invested many, many hours in the FIFA, Civilization, Diablo and Assassin’s Creed franchises.
JENS SCHROEDER, Director of Industry and Member Relations
Jens joined IGEA in 2019 after working as a lecturer for game design, manager of the SAE Sydney campus, Head of Academic Studies for Digital Media at Laureate Australia as well as Associate Dean (Design Vertical) for Torrens University.
Jens is also active in the development space; he is involved in a gamification project that aims to engage students of low socioeconomic status with tertiary education which has received an AU$50k grant from Optus as part of the Future Makers grant.
CERI HUTTON, Director of Operations and Projects
Ceri Hutton is a passionate leader specialising in Team Management and Business Development. He joined IGEA in early 2020, following the IGEA merger with the GDAA. Alongside Sav Emmett Wolfe, he currently manages operations, administration and communications of The Arcade in Melbourne, a renowned game development co-working space that houses over 35 of Australia’s games studios.
He also worked as a Senior Project Advisor on GCAP 2019 (an internationally recognised and respected game developer conference) managing the business administration and liaising with events management across all operational tasks.Ceri’s previous experience is built from many years of being an award winning manager at EB Games while simultaneously self-managing his own pop culture events business.
He is a firm believer that direct communication, supportive structure and strong leadership provide the most effective foundation for successful projects.
SAV EMMETT WOLFE, Manager of Operations and Diversity Lead
Sav Emmett Wolfe joined IGEA early in 2020, after the GDAA and IGEA merger. Alongside Ceri Hutton, he manages the operation and community of The Arcade Melbourne, a renowned game development coworking space that houses over 35 of Australia’s games studios.
He has also worked as an event coordinator for GCAP, an internationally recognised and respected game developer conference that takes place as part of Melbourne International Games Week .
Sav’s speciality lies in narrative design, having won awards both locally and internationally for his games. He also has a long history within LGBTQIA+ advocacy, and has delivered a number of talks about inclusion in the games industry.
His work focuses on three key aspects: Representation, empathy and education. These aspects move through all he does, from management, to events, to writing.
FELICITY TCHORLIAN, Administration Assistant
Felicity joined IGEA in 2019, collaborating closely with IGEA team and members with communication, event coordinating and accounts. She aims to apply her creative flair and knowledge on inclusivity with every task she is assigned to.
Felicity is a creative artist and loves working on artistic projects and is enthusiastic in sharing her talents with LGBTQIA+ community.
As a Hoh peformer, Felicity is passionate about learning multiple languages and is currently studying Auslan (Australian Sign Language). She also finds it enjoyable to share her Sign language skills with IGEA team.