Meet the judges of the 2024 GamesBeat Visionary Awards

Today we’re announcing our seventh annual GamesBeat Visionary Awards and the team of judges we’ve selected to help pick the winners of this year’s awards. (You can sign up for 25% off using this code: gbs24dean25).

The GamesBeat Visionary Awards started in 2018 to recognize industry leaders who took a daring, visionary approach to shaping the future of gaming, forging new paths that have mesmerized audiences and redefined the very nature of video games. We give out two awards every year: the Visionary Award and the Up-and-Comer award. This year’s ceremony will be hosted by Leah Hardy, a global marketing leader with decades of experience from companies like TikTok and Meta.

Judging for the Visionary Awards for GamesBeat Summit 2024 (May 20-21 in Marina del Rey, California; see the agenda here) is now complete and we’ll have new winners to announce at our event. We’ve chosen a panel of 12 judges for this year’s contest. Leah Hardy, a marketing veteran at TikTok and Meta, will be our host for the session.

Judges for 2024

Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games

Ted Price is President and founder of Insomniac Games, a video game developer with offices in Burbank, CA and Durham, NC.

Since 1994 Insomniac has created high profile game franchises in the console, VR, AR and mobile spaces. Some of its more popular creations include the Spyro the Dragon series, the Ratchet and Clank series, the Resistance: Fall of Man series, Sunset Overdrive, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Insomniac’s games have sold over 68 million units worldwide since the company’s inception. Insomniac has also won numerous local, state and national workplace awards for its unique culture.

Price’s responsibilities at Insomniac include directing the company’s strategic planning and day-to-day business as well as contributing to its projects. Price also serves on the board of directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

He was the second-ever recipient of the Visionary award when he won in 2019.

Rich Vogel, CEO of T-Minus Zero Entertainment

Rich Vogel, a distinguished executive producer, has been a driving force in the gaming industry for over 25 years. As the founder and studio head of T-Minus Zero, Vogel’s leadership was instrumental in the success of three prominent studios: Sony Online Entertainment Austin, BioWare Austin, and Bethesda Games Studio’s Battlecry, which collectively generated a remarkable $ 3 billion in revenue. Vogel’s operational expertise was also evident in his oversight of LiveOps for four critically acclaimed MMORPGs: Meridia 59, Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Rich’s contributions were recognized with the Up-and-Comer Award at GamesBeat Summit 2023.

Rami Ismail, games industry studio and project advisor

Rami Ismail is a Dutch-Egyptian independent games & tool developer with over 20 genre-defining and award-winning titles across PC, console, web, and mobile. The co-founder of the influential now-retired indie games studio Vlambeer, Rami worked on award-winning and genre-defining games such as Ridiculous Fishing and Nuclear Throne. His development of tools like the industry-standard dopresskit.com, his prolific & popular public speaking, and highly-regarded consultancy and insights have helped shape industry opportunities for game communities & independent game developers worldwide.

Rami continues to advocate the creation of a fairer and more equal industry for developers anywhere through his work at gamedev.world. His versatility and work resulted in him receiving a wide range of recognition, including the prestigious Game Developers Choice Ambassador Award, the IndieCade Gamechanger Award, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 nomination.

Riana Manuel-Peña, CEO of D&R Media Consulting

Production, marketing, and content creation — Riana has seen many sides of the gaming industry first-hand, with credits including Halo 5, Ori 1 & 2, Tell Me Why, and Ghostbusters. Her game development experience runs the gamut of large and niche titles.

Riana has also combined her Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion education with her passion for games in her many appearances on shows such as Kinda Funny, IGN, Rooster Teeth, Paramount Plus’s Halo: Declassified, and as co-host of both What’s Good Games and The Spawnies. Always looking for a new challenge, she served as Brand Director of the G4TV network during their re-launch, and is now working with Zebra Partners to bring her passion for games to an even broader audience.

Danny Peña, Gamertag Radio founder

Founder and Host of Gamertag Radio, since 2001 Danny Peña has been at the forefront of internet video game community building. Known for his unmistakable voice and interview skills, Danny is an inaugural Podcasters Hall of Fame inductee, and is a regular keynote speaker and featured panelist for events centered around podcasting, gaming, and radio.

Danny has been featured in Podcast Magazine, Forbes, CNN, NBC News, ABC News, MTV, Discovery Channel, Telemundo, IGN, Univision, and Paramount Plus content as a gaming industry expert. He has a unique interview style that draws out headline-making stories from games industry titans like Phil Spencer and Reggie Fils-Aimé. His other newsworthy interviews include Keanu Reeves, Giancarlo Esposito, Danny Trejo, and Michael K Williams, and Snoop Dog, to name a few. In 2018, Danny won Florida Supercon’s Best Feature Film for Gamertag Radio: A Podcast Story, and debuted his first children’s book Danny Loves Video Games which was co-created with his cousin Mr. Luna during last year’s Hispanic Heritage Month.

Ivan Fernandez-Lobo, founder of Gamelab Barcelona

Ivan Fernandez-Lobo is founder and president of the Gamelab Conference. He is a senior consultant for Essex78, DeviCAT, Madrid in Game, and GamesBeat. He is the founder of Meetaverse and investor/adviser with Liquid Games Studio. He is also the founder and president of Academia Española de las Artes y las Ciencias Interactivas and was associate professor and researcher at Universidad de Oviedo in Spain.

Don Daglow, game developer and author

Don Daglow is an author, adviser and game narrative designer. He is an adviser to The Strong National Museum of Play, volunteer president of the AIAS Foundation, and member of the AIAS board of directors. He is an adviser at Founders Space, Devcom, and GamesBeat Summit. He has served as an adviser at Bit Fry Game Studios. Daglow was the founder of Stormfront Studios and served in roles at Broderbund Software, Electronic Arts, and Mattel. He has written books including Indie Games: From Dream to Delivery, The Last One on the Run, and The Fog Seller.

Perrin Kaplan, co-founder of Zebra Partners

Perrin Kaplan is a global strategic marketing and communications C-level executive known for her award-winning work in tech, entertainment, consumer products, gaming, mixed reality, AI and more. Noted in several books, documentaries, and publications, she co-founded female-owned Zebra Partners, a global communications and integrated marketing firm following her role as vice president, marketing, communications, and spokesperson for Nintendo.

Zebra Partners’ talented team advises partners from innovative startups to Fortune100s. She has directed hundreds of brand efforts, 1000’s of product launches including the industry-shifting global phenomena Wii, Pokémon, DS, and the ambassador movement. 

Prior to Nintendo, Kaplan’s career focused on environmental public affairs and crisis for regional and national companies, including Washington D.C. and state. Her career began as a reporter for Seattle’s NBC affiliate. She’s an advisor, board member, investor and speaker and has been honored for her continued female mentorship. In 2007 she opened doors of Saving Great Animals, a large active non-profit rescuing the abused, neglected, abandoned. The organization has homed more than 9000 dogs.

Elizabeth Olson, PR and business development consultant

Elizabeth Olson is the founder of Strategic Marketing. She has been doing public relations and business development consulting for decades in games. She is head of strategy & media at Indie Angels Marketing Services, and has held marketing/PR roles at Telltale Games, Inca Games, Double Forte, Pinnacle Systems, Adobe Systems, Roxio, 3DO, Panasonic Interactive, Sound Source Interactive, Cyberdreams, Virgin Interactive Entertainment and Funco, where she was the founding executive editor of Game Informer magazine.

Jenna Seiden, SVP of business development at Skydance

Jenna Seiden is senior vice president of business development at Skydance Interactive. She is also founder of Zambezi Partners and advisory board member at Felix & Paul Studios as well as founder at Vertically Coast Consulting.

She was a venture adviser at Lumo Labs. She also held roles at Niantic, Meta, Beat Games, HTC Vive, Maker Studios, Microsoft Studios, Creative Artists Agency, NBA Properties and Dark Harbor Productions.

Chelsea Blasko, COO of Iron Galaxy

Chelsea Blasko is the co-CEO and partner at Iron Galaxy Studios. She has been there more than 13 years and is also an advisory board member for Women in Games International. She previously had roles at Robomodo and Electronic Arts.

Dean Takahashi, GamesBeat lead writer

Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He has been at VentureBeat since 2008. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, “Opening the Xbox” and “The Xbox 360 Uncloaked.” He organizes the annual GamesBeat and GamesBeat Summit conferences. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Past winners

Last year, the Visionary Award went to Meggan Scavio, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. This award is bestowed upon an individual who has demonstrated a remarkable ability to envision the future of the video game industry. It’s reserved for a true leader who possesses a rare combination of foresight, creativity, and innovation, and whose trailblazing efforts have propelled the industry into uncharted territory.

Other past Visionary winners include Rand Miller, cofounder of Cyan and co-creator of Myst; Ted Price, founder of Insomniac Games; John Smedley, studio head at Amazon Game Studios San Diego; Laura Miele, the top gaming executive at Electronic Arts; and Sarah Bond, vice president for game creator experience and ecosystem at Microsoft.

The 2023 Up and Comer winner was Rich Vogel, a veteran of the online gaming industry and studio head of T-Minus Zero. This award honors someone who is an up-and-comer when it comes to achievements in the game industry. It isn’t based on age or experience in the game industry. Rather, it recognizes that the biggest potential of the honoree lies ahead of them.

Past recipients of the Up and Comer award include Eve Crevoshay (Kre-vo-shay), executive director of Take This; creator Natasha “ZombaeKills” Zinda; and Dinga Bakaba, studio head and co-director at Arkane Lyon, a Bethesda studio.