Pro bono: Three senior gaming placements for Make-A-Wish UK

We are delighted to have recently helped Make-A-Wish UK to make three key hires to help with fundraising from the gaming sector. Over the last 40 years, Make-A-Wish have been granting wishes to children with critical illnesses.

For many of us, our childhood was the happiest time of our lives. However thousands of children are not so lucky. It is difficult to imagine how hard it must be for children with serious conditions and their families. Constant trips to hospital, with conditions that seriously affect their quality of life, and in some cases are terminal.

Through the granting of wishes, Make-A-Wish provides children and their families with a welcome distraction, new joy and hope for the future. This can also help to improve the long-term health outcomes for the children.

We helped Make-A-Wish to make three critical hires into their Gaming Advisor Group. This group will engage different stakeholders in the games industry – including publishers, console makers, streamers, and e-sports companies to help fundraise and grant wishes to children.

For many of the children we serve, gaming is so much more than fun, it’s a lifeline.

It provides them with social engagement when they’re undergoing treatment and unable to attend school or clubs with their friends, it provides respite and distraction from the challenges they face every day with their critical illness, and it offers a welcoming and inclusive community where they can be who they want to be again.

As a result of this, it’s not surprising that Make A Wish UK has experienced a 400% increase in gaming wishes being requested.

Alex Dale is the former Chief Marketing Officer for King, where he played a key role in scaling them to become one of the largest mobile games companies in the world. Since his time with King, Alex sits on the board of several games companies and brings deep commercial expertise to the business.

Philip Morris is a highly accomplished sales leader with deep experience of working in the games industry. He has worked for Nintendo, Apple and Intel and most recently Tencent where he leads business development for the games sector in Europe.

Nick Rooke has very deep experience of building partnerships and commercial relationships across the gaming industry over the last twenty years. Today, Nick leads Global Partner Services for PlayStation and also spent seven years working with Microsoft, where he built partnerships with third party developers looking to publish games on Microsoft platforms.

Peter Franks, Partner at Neon River commented, “With their deep experience across sales and marketing in the games industry, I’m confident that Alex, Philip and Nick can help Make-A-Wish achieve further success in fundraising within the sector. We’re delighted to partner with Make-A-Wish and give something back to the community”.