Gen Con has announced that game industry veteran David Hoppe will join the company’s executive team as President. As such, Hoppe will take over the management of Gen Con’s operations at the company’s Seattle office, beginning in May 2017.

After 10 years of leadership, in which Gen Con’s annual attendance has more than doubled, Adrian Swartout will step down as CEO following this August’s Gen Con 50 event. Hoppe and Swartout will work together to jointly manage the company and ensure a smooth leadership transition throughout the next four months. Subsequently, Swartout will continue to serve on Gen Con’s Board of Directors.

David Hoppe is currently Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Blastworks, Inc. a mobile games developer and publisher with operations in North America and Europe. At Blastworks, David oversees performance marketing, analytics, data science, and business development. Prior to Blastworks, David spent five years as a Director of Business Operations for Xbox Live and Microsoft, as well as being a founding member of two game development startups (Flashlight Creations & Tenacious Games). He also served as a consultant to Upper Deck Entertainment, and from 1995 to 2002 was SVP of Organized Play, as well as Brand Management at Wizards of the Coast during the meteoric rise of both the Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon trading card game franchises.