The IGEA Team
Ron Curry
CEO
Since joining IGEA in 2008, Ron has played an instrumental role in tackling the emerging issues surrounding interactive entertainment, and demonstrating the positive influence of computer and video games in the broader community particularly within the education and health sector.
Ron often appears in the media or fronting government to discuss the power of games to connect, empower, educate and inspire. Issues which he supports passionately include trade and export, funding, child safety, health, diversity and education.
Ron has sat on many working groups, boards and roundtables including an Advisory Committee Member on the ALRC’s Classification Review and holds a seat on the government’s Consultative Working Group on Cyber Safety.
More recently, Ron took the lead in the merger between the GDAA and IGEA in 2020, which saw the two associations coming together, ensuring that there was a single unified voice representing the video games industry.
Prior to joining IGEA, Ron spent 15 years in the interactive entertainment business working for platform holders, publishers and distributors in areas as varied as sales, marketing, operations and general management. In this time Ron was also one of the founding Directors of IGEA, which was then IEAA.
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 and Government Affairs
Ben brings to IGEA a wealth of government expertise, particularly at the intersection of video games, digital technology, policy and regulation. Ben is responsible for monitoring, identifying and advising members on current and emerging policy and regulatory issues that may affect them. His focus is to work proactively with members and governments to help drive the video games sector forward. Among other things, Ben writes most of IGEA’s formal submissions and advocacy papers, and leads IGEA’s dialogue with governments, from building relationships with agencies to appearing before Parliamentary Committees.
Before coming to IGEA, Ben spent over a decade with the Australian Government, most recently as a manager with the eSafety Commissioner, and before that the director of classification policy and research at the (then) Department of Communications and the Arts, where he also helped to lead a whole-of-Government review of Australia’s screen funding and content policies. Prior to these roles, Ben spent many years in Canberra, first in the Attorney-General’s Department and then the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, where he was an adviser on cyber policy.
An avid game player, Ben is adept at finding and incorporating obscure video game references into IGEA’s advocacy.
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.
Combining his experience in games, business, academia, management and leadership, Jens is responsible for representing and growing the IGEA’s development members by providing them a voice to government and industry, act as the interface between the Australian video game development industry and IGEA and work close with state, territory and commonwealth departments and agencies to the benefit of the industry.
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 specializing in team management and business development whose experience is built from managing multiple projects, tasks and team members.
He is the Director of Operations & Projects at IGEA, working across a variety of projects designed to help grow and develop the Australian Games industry.
This includes managing operations of The Arcade in Melbourne, a renowned game development co-working space that houses over 35 of Australia’s games studios alongside Sav Wolfe, leading major projects at IGEA such as the AGDAs, providing key operational support for major events such as GCAP, And seeking out and managing new business opportunities and projects that will provide benefit to Arcade residents and IGEA members alike.
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.
He is also always down for a yarn… so long as there is coffee involved.
Sav Wolfe
Manager of Operations & 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.
Alongside Raelene Knowles, Sav Co-Chairs the IGEA IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Accessibility) Working Group, and works hard producing events, resources and assistance in this field.
He also works 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 specialty 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.
