German video games trade body Gamescom has a brand new director in Stefan Heikhaus.
The news was announced by the country's trade body Game, who said that Heikhaus will be starting in the middle of December and will also be heading up its events.
He will be in charge of Gamescom, as well as its ancillary events such as Gamescom Asia and Gamescom LAN.
Heikhaus previously worked in the games industry as head of trade marketing for Ubisoft's German business between 2001 and 2005. From there he became trade marketing manager for Germany and Austria for PlayStation until 2009. Since he has worked at Cisco and Microsoft's mobile business, before being hired as marketing lead for Bullitt Group, which created the Cat Phone in collaboration with construction company Caterpillar.
He replaces Christian Baur as Gamescom's director
"I’m very excited about the opportunities that this position gives me to shape the ongoing development of Gamescom, the world’s largest games event," Heikhaus said. "Gamescom does more than set new standards for the dynamic games industry again and again – it’s also an outstanding event format that is closely followed by other industries around the globe. That’s because events like Gamescom where everyone – from trade visitors to the community at large – meet, are of tremendous importance, even for digital media like games.’
Game MD Felix Falk added: "Gamescom is tremendously important not only for us here at game, but for the entire games industry. It generates interest in our medium far beyond the world of games, making it clear year in and year out just how important games are as an economic factor, driver of innovation and cultural asset. Without Gamescom, many of the successes achieved in the policy sphere in recent years – from the German government’s games strategy all the way to the introduction of federal games funding – would hardly have been possible at this speed. That’s why we’re so delighted that Stefan is taking the helm – a marketing expert who not only has extensive experience in the games industry, but in other related fields as well. He thus brings valuable perspectives which, together with our partner Koelnmesse, will be extremely valuable in the further development of Gamescom, the satellite and content formats and the brand as a whole."
