2024 Speakers

VP of Games Operations - Jagex

Ben Wibberley

With over 25 years’ experience in video games, starting as a tester, Ben has dedicated his career to championing Games QA. A co-founder of Games Quality.Org and a Co-Chair of the Qualicon content committee, Ben’s passion has always been QA with a focus on the player experience. In 1998 he co-founded Babel Media, the first multi-service game outsourcing provider. He also set-up a developer publishing support network at DDM and ran global business development for VMC. He founded DAQA, the Concierge of Game Quality, specializing in executive counsel and live quality operations. He is currently VP of Games Operations at Jagex.

Technical Product Manager - Electronic Arts

Carolina Cruz

Carolina is a Technical Product Manager at Electronic Arts. She started working at EA over a decade ago and, more recently, is overseeing tools like IRIS, photosensitivity analysis solution, and Fonttik, a tool designed to check text legibility through font size and contrast ratio. Both accessibility solutions were made open-sourced by EA in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Sr. Compliance QA - Funcom Bucharest

Cosmin Munteanu

Cosmin’s passion for gaming traces back to his earliest memories, playing with nothing but sticks and stones, evolving alongside technology to the latest gaming consoles and PC. This lifelong enthusiasm paved the way for a memorable 11-year career in the gaming industry, a field he deeply loves and cherishes.

In 2012, Cosmin embarked on his professional journey with Electronic Arts’ then Compliance department. This role granted him an exclusive view into the inner workings of various EA studios, allowing him to witness firsthand the development of
some of the most amazing and remarkable content. Throughout his tenure, he observed the distinct characteristics of each studio, celebrated their triumphs, and learned from the challenges they faced.

This period was a time of significant professional growth and learning for Cosmin, equipping him with the versatility to meet the evolving demands of the gaming world. It was not just about adapting, though. He has always placed a high value on mentorship, guiding others as they navigate the ever-changing landscape of the industry. At the same time, Cosmin has remained a dedicated learner himself, ceaselessly gathering insights and expertise.

Cosmin has now taken his talents to Funcom’s Compliance department, seeking new challenges in a career that reflects his deep commitment to gaming and technology. With an unwavering drive for excellence, he looks to the future with enthusiasm, ready to tackle the next set of opportunities that await in an industry he loves.

Quality Designer - Respawn Entertainment

Craig Jack

“Craig Jack is a Quality Design with over 15 years of QA experience in the tech industry. His background covers Web, TV, Interactive & VR, Social media, Technical art, and Videogames where he has worked on over a dozen different titles including AAA games and at international studios.

Craig has a degree in Media Art and Animation with a minor focus in Game Design. He got his start at Activision where he worked for 4.5 years on almost a dozen titles including CoD: Black Ops 1. After leaving Activision he broadened his experience working at other notable companies like DirectTV, JibJab, Amazon Game Studio, & Snapchat.

He has join Respawn in 2020 during the Covid pandemic as a Quality Designer where he focused on Experimental Design. Using his creative experiences, exploring ways to improve processes and tackle experimental initiatives.”

Senior Director of Technology - Electronic Arts

David King

David has been working in Software Quality Engineering in the games industry for over 15 years, working directly on 15 titles and franchises including Need For Speed, Battlefield, and Star Wars: Battlefront.

He is now responsible for Electronic Arts’ QA central technology teams and global technology strategy, where he is working with all game teams on embracing established engineering patterns and new technologies to enable creating the next generation of game experiences. David believes that QA should lead by example when it comes to creating software and that QA can never the bottleneck holding back a team.

David has a particular passion for Automated Testing starting from his first day at EA when he had to automate Harry Potter wandering around Hogwarts to test the pathing system in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. More recently he has spoken at several conferences about how Automated Testing can help every game team from the smallest indie studio to the largest AAA project achieve their goals in a scalable fashion.

David believes that he can have the greatest impact on making amazing games by creating a better environment to develop them in. He has taken this belief and focused it into establishing his career in Software Quality Engineering and credibility for the discipline.”

QA Manager - SEGA

Evgeniy Kolev

For more than 12 years Evgeniy has been a part of QA in a variety of companies and positions. From testing banking and gambling software, to websites and video games. Starting as a Junior QA at the age of 17 and making it all the way to QA Project Manager, then starting over as a regular QA in several companies, to gather all possible QA knowledge and after time getting to his current position of QA Manager. Evgeniy is passionate about learning and applying new emergent software testing processes in his own day-to-day work and that of his teams. He is a big proponent of trying to adapt already established and working software practices and project management approaches to video game QA. In addition to that he puts a lot of emphasis on having proper communication between each individual team member and between different teams, working on the same project.
In his free time Evgeniy enjoys playing video games, watching movies and TV series, going on hikes, travelling.

QA Project Manager - Funcom Bucharest

George Alexandru Cotofana

Cotofana George Alexandru born 27 of May 1990. Attended Law School, Phycology and Philosophy but dropped out of all of them. Started in testing at Ubisoft as way to make money but ended up discovering that it’s a pretty good way of combining a passion for gaming with making a living. Worked at EA starting with Need for Speed Rivals and ended the tenure after 2.7 years with a DevQA position on Need for Speed 2015. Moved on to Bandai Namco Romania(R.I.P sad face) for a DevQA role on Pac Man mobile, ended up staying for the better part of 6 years while Scrum Master(2 years and QA Manager(2 years) were the highlights. Changed the gaming industry for the web/software development industry at Airnow PLC (R.I.P sad face) as a Scrum Master for the next 1.4 years. Finally moved to Funcom as a QA Project Manager on Conan Exiles in October 2022 and kept going.

Sr Quality Engineer - Xbox Game Studios

Hilary Weaver

Hilary Weaver is a Sr Quality Engineer for Xbox Game Studios, working remotely from Michigan on Microsoft Flight Simulator. Hilary loves to help train folks in API testing and automation, using static analysis to inform our testing, and has always been passionate about improving the relationships between developers and testers. She recently adopted a 3-legged dog who may make an appearance during her presentation so keep an eye out!

Software Engineer - Electronic Arts / DICE

Jesper Klittmark

Jesper is a Software Quality Engineer working to facilitate a data-driven approach to games development at Electronic Arts; to automate everything and let humans focus on finding the fun.

Quality Service Manager

Mike Denny

Quality Verification Specialist – Jagex

Mike has been with Jagex for 3 years and is currently in the role of Quality Service Manager. He is responsible for the coordination and execution of QA processes for Jagex’s third party titles in a publishing capacity. Prior to joining Jagex, Mike worked for PlayStation in his hometown of Liverpool as a QA Test Lead.
Outside of work, Mike spends most of his spare time looking after his dog – Badger, a bouncy 2 year old Cockerpoo. He also plays football, is an avid pub-quizzer and is lifelong fan of professional wrestling.

QA Leader and Advocate

Nate Stoddard

Nate has been a QA leader since 2013 while working at Harmonix and is passionate about holistic quality championship being one of the greatest gifts that our discipline can offer the rest of the industry. He is incredibly grateful to be a part of the speaking community for Qualicon and for all of the opportunities he has been afforded so far in his career.

DICE

Niklas Lindgren

Niklas started as a Software Quality Engineer and by passion and drive worked his way into Solution Architecture, where now iteration and quality stand as central pillars! His passion for quality pushes the boundaries on how to empower people to be great while solving practical problems.

Development Manager - Respawn Entertainment

Quentin Warner

With 11 years of experience in QA Quentin has a passion for innovating in the QA space. His current role is introducing a player first aspect to the development process through playtesting.

Sr. Compliance QA Specialist - Funcom Bucharest

Radu Panait

QC Project Manager - Ubisoft India Studios

Rohan Gitay

Rohan Gitay started his career as a game tester with Ubisoft after 10 years he is now working as a QC Project Manager. Throughout his experience he witnessed the work environment evolve due to changes in industry & influx of new talent in an organization. Rohan’s leadership style is based on observations & learnings he has taken from collogues, where while ensuring project goals are met people also feel recognized, engaged & motivated.

QA Engineer III - Riot Games

Toby Hurtubise

After college, Toby started a plumbing business with his brother. Following a series of unfortunate mishaps, some animal rights groups got involved due to a misunderstanding about turtles, and the business was closed. He turned to hard manual labor, working in a reactor for the largest energy company in the world, until one day these eco-terrorists came through trippin, and Toby got all swept up in what they were doing, finding himself in a rag-tag group of lovable if somewhat stereotypical personalities. After the group found themselves at a casino, he was separated from the rest and found himself in an arcade, where he met a guy who got him a job testing videogames. Toby got pretty good at it, jumping from the games industry to web and app software and now back to games. Now he spends his time in reality, attempting to lead teams of QA Engineers on their journey to the left.
Outside of work, Toby enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, haunted stuff, videogames, live music, and beatboxing.

Sr. Quality Designer - QVS / EA

Youna Chung

Hi there! I’m Youna Chung, a Senior Quality Designer at Electronic Arts, and my journey in the tech world has been nothing short of exhilarating. With over 15 years of experience spanning E-commerce, government, finance, and gaming, I’ve had the privilege of diving deep into diverse industries and honing my craft along the way.

My passion for innovation and cutting-edge technology knows no bounds. Armed with a background in computer science, PMP certification, and a knack for strategic thinking, I thrive on pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

But life isn’t all about work for me. When I’m not shaping the future of Quality Design, you’ll find me lacing up my running shoes, hitting the cycling trails, and most recently, embracing the challenge of mastering tennis. I’m always up for new adventures and challenges that push me out of my comfort zone.

And when it’s time to unwind, there’s nothing I love more than a thrilling game of Chess. As a true strategist at heart, I relish the mental challenge and strategic planning that comes with each move.

With a zest for life and an insatiable appetite for learning, I’m on a mission to make every moment count and create a future filled with excitement and innovation.

Software Engineer - Electronic Arts

Blanca Macazaga Zuazo

Blanca is a Software Engineer at Electronic Arts. She first joined EA in 2017 as a Compliance & Certification tester. For the past four years she has continued her career as a software engineer focusing on the development of tools that facilitate accessibility validation and automation. Her main areas of work have been IRIS, EA’s photosensitivity analysis solution, and Fonttik, a tool designed to check text legibility through font size and contrast ratio. Both accessibility solutions were made open-sourced by EA in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Director of Technical Delivery - Electronic Arts

Angela Stockinger

Angela Stockinger is a professional in the gaming industry, having dedicated 13 years of her career to Electronic Arts. Her primary focus has always been on game quality, a perspective she has approached from a multitude of angles. In her current role, Angela is overseeing the value delivery of technical products for a large portion of the experiential quality efforts at EA. Her responsibilities entail leveraging new technologies to maximize impact and ensuring that these technologies are deployed in a way that enhances the gaming experience for all players. Her passion is innovation, R&D work and prototyping in general, and the delivery of high-impact and high-quality technical products that help to inspire the world to play.

Morgan Baker (she/they) is a award-winning Games Accessibility Specialist & Designer

Morgan Baker (she/her)

Morgan Baker (she/they) is a award-winning Games Accessibility Specialist & Designer who has a strong commitment to increasing the accessibility and broadening the inclusivity of video games. She currently serves as a Games Accessibility Lead for Electronic Arts Inc.

Sr. Director of QA - Singularity 6

Nathan Tiras

Nathan has a wealth of experience leading live operations titles. He led the Live QA team for League of Legends, at Riot Games, and now owns both QA and Live Operations at Singularity 6 for Palia.

Director - Quality Control - Ubisoft

Ritu Chowdhary

Ritu Chowdhary leads the Quality Control function at Ubisoft India, spearheading innovative strategies and long-term planning to enhance the studio’s quality control capabilities. Her focus is on accelerating growth and enhancing player experiences through memorable gaming innovations. With over twenty years in test automation, she passionately drives technology advancement and delivers state-of-the-art solutions.

Prresenter

Elle Osili-Wood

Elle Osili-Wood is an award-winning television presenter, specialising in entertainment. A warm, joyful on-screen presence, Elle’s entertainment career has seen her named a BAFTA Breakthrough for her work at the BBC, and nominated for an ARIA as a presenter of Radio 4’s Front Row. In addition, her extensive career in video games, presenting for brands like PlayStation and Xbox, as well as hosting the BAFTA Games Awards, has seen her named “one of the most influential women in games” by Google.

With a career spanning more than a decade on screen, Elle has built a reputation for fun, uplifting content that engages and entertains audiences. Whether red carpet reporting for Netflix, delving into neuroscience for BBC Sounds, or surfing round the UK for social media, Elle brings her trademark enthusiasm and extensive knowledge to every role. 

Described by BAFTA as “an industry go-to” for entertainment coverage, Elle is known for her incisive work as an interviewer – whether she’s hanging out backstage with Ralph Fiennes, unearthing scrapped scenes with the directors of Everything Everywhere All At Once, or persuading Elisabeth Moss to spill secrets about The Handmaid’s Tale. She’s a regular host of BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts show, Front Row, as well as a red carpet reporter for Netflix, BAFTA, and Channel 4. Elle was also chosen as part of the BBC’s coverage of the Royal Coronation, hosting the series The Coronation Collection on BBC Radio 2, and in 2023 Elle was announced as the new host of BBC Radio 3’s Sound of Gaming. 

In addition, Elle’s extensive video games career, presenting for brands like PlayStation, Xbox, Ubisoft, and Pokémon, creating games documentaries and podcasts for the BBC, and hosting the prestigious BAFTA Games Awards, has seen her described as “one of the most recognisable faces in games.” Elle’s leading expertise in video games, and video game audiences, has seen her invited to speak to the UK Parliament and Oxford University, as well as provide consultancy on the video games industry for some of the world’s most valuable brands, including Adidas, McDonald’s, O2, and the BBC.