Alex Mendelev has been at the forefront of the game industry for well over a decade, holding key executive positions in technology, game production, product management and business development. Most recently, Alex served as the General Manager and Head of Studios â$“ Canada at GameHouse, where he led a studio of over 50 people in the development of industry leading Free-to-Play games for mobile phones and Facebook.

Prior to joining GameHouse, Alex served as VP, Business and Corporate Development at Backstage Games, a Victoria-based game company that pioneered the Free-to-Play business model in Canada and was the first game developer in the country to integrate with the Facebook API. At Backstage, Alex was instrumental in tripling the company revenue in less than a year and structuring an acquisition with GameHouse, one of the largest casual game portals in the world. Alex previously cut his teeth in the mobile space, where he held technical and management roles building and distributing games through mobile devices. A highly respected voice in Canada and beyond, Alex holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia and an M.B.A. from McGill University.

Looking for a proven leader and team builder? Look no further than Chris Hoefgen. Chris has been one of the bright lights of the technology industry for the past 15 years, contributing to everything from big data game systems to search engines. In 2007 he co-founded Backstage Games, which focused on creating games for social networks. Backstage was one of the earliest adopters of the Free-to-Play model and their games were among the first to monetize on the Facebook platform. Over the next two years Chris became a specialist in high performance scalable systems, game play analysis and metric-driven design and used his wealth of experience to help the company build and launch several titles including Scratch and Win, Slots, Pull Tabs, Mind Games and Bingo Explosion.

Chris's efforts made Backstage Games a highly desirable commodity and the company was acquired by GameHouse in 2010, at which point Chris became Senior Director of Technology for the Social Games division. With the acquisition Chris lead the growth of the studio, tripling its size over the next three years and creating a strong team focused on social and mobile game development. In addition to his professional duties, is also an Executive Adviser for the Victoria chapter of the IGDA, and speaks frequently to other game developers mentoring them on design, development and the video games business.

You'd be hard pressed to find a game series that Jamie Toghill hasn't worked on. X-COM? Check. Roller Coaster Tycoon? Been there, done that. FIFA Football? Jamie played an integral role in its development. A veteran of the industry with more than 18 years of direct game design and production experience, Jamie has been credited on over 50 video games and has developed titles for every platform from the 32-bit consoles to Playstation 3. He knows the industry inside-out and is always eager to share his experience and insights.

Prior to joining TinyMob Games, Jamie was the Executive Producer at GameHouse, where he led the production of successful Free-to-Play/virtual goods games including GameHouse Slots and GameHouse Casino. Jamie is also an active member of the International Game Developers Association and has spoken at game conferences across the world and has written articles and provided mentoring to international students in video game studies.