2021 ... 2024
At Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro), I managed mid-size Creative orgs of 30-40 ppl, consisting of Art Directors, Narrative Designers, Creative Managers, Producers, Digital Artists, and Typesetters.
My team was responsible for the Creative development (art commissioning, creative text, etc.) for Magic's large IP partnerships with Disney's Marvel, BBC's Doctor WHO, MEE's Lord of the Rings (side note: the best selling Magic set of all-time!), Square Enix's Final Fantasy, and other well-known fantasy IPs whose partnerships have not yet been publicly announced.
We worked in close collaboration with the IP owners, game designers, business strategy team, and more. Most of our recent work will not release for over a year, but below you can see some of the creative approaches taken in the Lord of the Rings and Doctor WHO products.
More about the Role
In addition to managing & leading the Universes Beyond Creative team through Pre-Vision, Vision, Art Development, and Finalization, I was responsible for a multi-million dollar Art Budget and Cost Center, team morale, process, operations, and more. When I led Magic Creative Production during my first 2 years at Wizards, my org's Glint scores (measure of morale) increased a dramatic 20 points in the year, while I was simultaneously guiding them through a transition into Magic's most complex and largest scale roadmap in its 30 year history.
The role required me to quickly learn and develop a deep knowledge of the game's complex Creative Production process (highly manual pipeline with very interconnected dependencies). I drove efforts to build pipeline efficiencies that enabled us to release a record volume of products, on time and on budget. I also developed methods for quantifying team throughput and other key metrics that did not exist when I joined.
Magic: The Gathering sets built and released during my time with the company achieved record sales three years in a row, surpassing $1 billion in revenue and eclipsing all other major Hasbro brands.