Devon Stanton: programs and operations across marketing, communications and developer ecosystems
I find the friction between teams and build the bridges that remove it: programs, workflows, and tools across marketing, communications, and developer programs. I lead cross-functional teams and regional leads without formal authority, and turn manual, fragmented processes into systems that scale without adding headcount.
19+ years building in games and technology
Companies I have worked for
2023 to now
Unity
Senior Program Manager
2021
Unity
Senior Communications Manager, EMEA
2016
Blizzard Entertainment
Franchise Communications Lead, Europe
2015
2K
PR Manager, Export
2012
Digital War Room
Founder & CEO
Side project2007
Megarom Interactive
PR & Promotions Manager
Mid-2000s
Gamerlobby
Built a community for South African gamers
Define outcomes, stakeholders, and risk models before launch cycles begin.
Build repeatable frameworks so scale doesn't rely on individual heroics.
Most of what I've delivered has run through people I don't manage: regional leads, cross-functional teams, partners. I align them early and keep the work simple enough to do.
Define KPIs, governance, and feedback loops before the work is in flight.
Most admin work is accepted as how things are done. A better way is usually closer than it looks.
Read the essay: Do it now, while the need is real
Unity, 2024–2025
My part: Built the platform and ran the program, with one colleague reviewing nominees
Flipped an awards program to self-service: studios nominated themselves and made their own promo, with no paid media.
Blizzard, 2018
My part: Developed the concept; coordinated fabrication, logistics and execution
Brought Diablo III on Switch to European media with two touring chests of consoles, instead of flying journalists to a US preview.
Journalists responded enthusiastically, and launch coverage and reviews were overwhelmingly positive.
Unity
My part: Created, built and ran the program: set the criteria, built the system and worked with the studios
A pre-launch review program I built and ran: Unity staff play studios' games and send back one written report. 70 projects went through it.
A way for studios to prepare before launch and own their story on their own platforms.
I cut my teeth in South Africa, building Gamerlobby, a community that united South African gamers to compete in multiplayer when latency abroad was too poor to play. That led to Megarom, then 2K, then Blizzard.
At Unity I moved out of games and into tech, and got close to the studios building them and what drives them. Throughout, I've enjoyed building the mechanisms, tools and systems that bring games out into the open.
Megarom was a South African distributor with some of the biggest publishers on its books: Activision Blizzard, 2K, Rockstar, Ubisoft, NC Soft, Namco Bandai, Codemasters, CD Projekt RED and more. We worked non-stop on launches, and it was a machine. It taught me marketing, PR, social media, event management, presenting to audiences, hitting critical deadlines, networking, and building relationships and partnerships. It was an incredible stomping ground to grow and learn.
I was never one to shy away from getting in character. As the face of Megarom I loved goofing around, playing the part and moving the needle. In games, sometimes you have to breathe in the brand to really know it.
Moving to 2K meant immigrating to the UK and learning fast in a new arena. I built relationships with our partner territories and agencies and met amazing people in Italy, Poland, Russia and Dubai, while still looking after my home turf in South Africa. Working with partners pushed me from execution into strategy: building plans for specific territories, understanding their limits, approving plans, and travelling a lot. More coffee, please.
2K also let me work with major brands like WWE. I learned how those partnerships worked and how we used their talent in support of our game, then briefed their superstars on presenting their in-game characters to press and creators, so we protected both the WWE brand and our label's IP.
Blizzard was an opportunity I couldn't turn down. I joined the franchise team, leading European strategy for four franchises: Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft, Diablo and Hearthstone. I took real ownership, managing the annual activation budget, working with local territory managers to keep us aligned and meet their needs against plans we had built together, reporting back to the global teams, and attending BlizzCon.
Anthropic Academy
Some of the companies I have supported
Happy to talk about a role, a problem you're working through, or just to compare notes. Open to communications leadership, marketing operations management and program marketing management roles. Based in France and an EU citizen; also open to Ireland, or the UK with sponsorship.