BIG FISH GAMES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head of Business Development
- Head, Business Development
Gary Rosenfeld is the Head of Business Development at Big Fish Games. Additionally, Gary oversees business development within North America for Pixel United, Big Fish's parent company. Gary brings over 25 years of developing and executing strategies for the development, distribution, and licensing of content and intellectual property across video games, entertainment media, and digital technology. As Head of Business Development, Gary's role spans strategic and operational aspects of business development, including M&A, game development and licensing partnerships, and distribution. Gary is on a mission to drive Big Fish and Pixel United's business forward and is dedicated to working with the Big Fish team to build the top casual games company in the world!
Before joining Big Fish, Gary managed his consulting business, BD Labs, where he worked on video game and digital media business development and strategy for large media companies and brands. BD Labs' clients included Pixel United, Discovery Communications, Universal Music Group, Peanuts Worldwide, MGM, Opry Entertainment, and Louisiana Economic Development/Greater New Orleans. Before starting his own business, Gary served in senior executive capacities at 20th Century Fox, THQ, and The Endeavor Agency (now WME).
Gary enjoys skiing on the slopes with his family and friends, walking his lab pup Dewey, all-things-UCLA sports, and enjoying music (particularly Bruce Springsteen and any band from New Orleans).
Gary is a graduate of Loyola Law School and UCLA and is an active member of the State Bar of California.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Business Operations
Huy Nguyen is the Vice President of Business Operations at Big Fish Games. Huy leads the data science, data engineering, Live Ops tools and platform, and business performance teams. As a data-driven leader, he is motivated by applying deep data insights to products to delight millions of players.
Prior to leading Big Fish's business operations team, Huy led teams at Electronic Arts (EA), Amazon, and Intel. At EA, Huy built out the business planning and forecasting tool for mobile products and was responsible for modernizing the live service platform and processes.
Huy received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from the University of Washington and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
Ivan Fernandez is Big Fish's Chief Technology Officer and leads Central Technology at Big Fish. Ivan is a seasoned games and tech industry leader with over 17 years building services, infrastructure, connected applications, and games. He most recently led the technology departments at Square Enix and Studio Onoma. Ivan earned his Bachelor's degree in Computer and Information Science from the Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas - ESPE. Ivan is based in Montreal and will be growing his team in Big Fish's newest location.
Larry Plotnick is the President at Big Fish Games. He brings over 25 years of game and entertainment industry experience to Big Fish, where he leads the company strategy, culture, and vision in support of our players.
Prior to joining Big Fish, Larry spent over 11 years at Amazon, most recently as the General Manager of Prime Gaming, where he led the creation of new business models for game players and developers across Amazon and Twitch. Prior to moving to the digital side of Amazon's gaming space, he oversaw the physical and digital retail video games business for Amazon.com. Before Amazon, Larry has been driving the growth, development, and launches of large entertainment and retail companies, including Hollywood Entertainment (owner of Hollywood Video), Game Crazy, and Limited Stores retail brands.
Larry is a proud father of eight, a music lover, a football fan, and a life-long gamer. He devotes much of his time outside of work to spending time with his family and donating his time to charities in support of children with special needs.
He graduated from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business with a Bachelor of the Arts in Accounting.
He will often quote Patrick Lencioni: "If you can get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time."
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Strategist, Consultant
Rachel DiPaola is the Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Transformation at Big Fish Games and brings with her more than 25 years of game industry experience. As Chief of Staff, Rachel is the right hand to the Big Fish President and executive team, leading the implementation of critical company initiatives across teams.
Rachel is a strategist, consultant, and implementer, identifying opportunities for improvement and executing streamlined processes across the organization based on the priorities of the business. Rachel acts as a change agent who converts initiatives into action and assists with the daily operations of the organization.
Rachel has led the publishing and development of over 75 titles across multiple platforms and genres, having previously worked for Disney, Jam City, 2K, Zynga, and more across the gaming industry. Rachel is passionate about mentorship of employees as well as junior professionals in the video game industry.
When not working on Big Fish Games, Rachel can be found hiking on Mt. Tamalpais, reading, or riding her E-bike around town.
Todd Heringer is the SVP Head of Operations at Big Fish Games and brings 24 years of experience in interactive mobile, social, and online entertainment products. As SVP Head of Operations, Todd oversees all aspects of engineering, shared game tech, central tech, facilities, and program management.
Prior to joining Big Fish, Todd was Head of Studio at Backflip Studios, a subsidiary of Hasbro, where he managed the studio and operated mobile games including DragonVale and Transformers: Earth Wars. Before Backflip Studios, Todd was GM of the social casino team at GSN Games and oversaw development and live operations of mobile games including GSN Casino and Solitaire TriPeaks.
Todd has been an avid gamer since he was a small child, and he's continually amazed and excited that his job involves building the games that he loves to play.
Todd holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Todd is dedicated to building and enabling Big Fish teams around the globe, to make it as easy and fun as possible to build games at Big Fish Games.