SACRAMENTO – May 9, 2024 – The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has appointed Zak Whaley as the next Chair of the board of directors following Margaret Krohn, whose Chair term concluded at the end of March. After a member-wide vote, the IGDA  welcomes two newly elected members to its board, Mafalda Duarte and Tim Cullings. Krohn will remain on the board for an additional year as Chair Emeritus. 

Whaley is a seasoned technology leader and the Director of Engineering at PlayEveryWare, a co-development studio which supports titles like Among Us and Fall Guys, and partners including Epic Games and Riot Games. He previously helped build an XR platform team at Magic Leap, and is known for his stewardship leadership style. Whaley also chairs the Engineering SIG of the IGDA. 

Mafalda Duarte is the Studio Director and Producer for Telescope Game Studios, an indie game studio focused on developing transmedia IPs. In addition to her work at Telescope, she is the Ambassador Coordinator for Women in Games. Duarte is one of the founders of Game Dev Lisbon. She has led projects like Spotlight Magazine, Spotlight Awards, and Game Dev Camp among others. She’s also served as a Juror for local and international awards from Novos Talentos FNAC to Devcom Indie Award 2023, and taught classes on game production and project planning.

Tim Cullings is a Seattle video games industry veteran, and champion for game development and climate science. He is currently the CTO of Revere XR, and Executive Director for Seattle Indies, and formerly the Executive Director and Director of Operations at Global Game Jam (GGJ). Prior to GGJ, Cullings worked in Dev Ops and Enterprise Engineering at Oculus helping ship everything between Rift and Quest 2. Cullings was honored as the IGDA MVP Award winner in 2021, formerly the Chapter lead for IGDA Seattle, NW-US Regional Coordinator for IGDA, and the Pacific NW Alumni Coordinator for IndieCade. 

“Game developers need community now more than ever,” said Dr. Jakin Vela, Executive Director of the IGDA. “In a time of industry volatility, game developers rely on solidarity among one another. The community-centric expertise Mafalda and Tim bring to the IGDA board will support our goals in expanding resources and support systems for game workers across the globe.”

In other news, the IGDA Board appointed Natasha Skult an additional one-year term. The IGDA will be saying farewell to Taha Rasouli who concluded his three-year term, and significantly contributed to IGDA’s mentorship and resource expansion efforts.

About the IGDA:

The International Game Developers Association is the largest nonprofit membership organization serving game developers worldwide. The IGDA is committed to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.

For more information, please visit www.igda.org.

Media Contacts

Haylee Kiedrowski/ Eliott Garcia

Stride PR for IGDA 

haylee@stridepr.com/ eliott@stridepr.com/ press@igda.org