The Xbox Mentoring Program Kicks Off: Register Now
Xbox is thrilled to announce the official start of the Xbox Mentoring Program aimed at partnering women in gaming careers across Xbox’s diverse range of studios and products with aspiring talent.
First introduced on International Women’s Day, the Xbox Mentoring Program gives you the chance to access valuable 1:1 coaching sessions with key leaders in select markets such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, and Korea with additional markets to follow.
If you aspire a career in gaming and live in the above regions, register below for the Xbox Mentor in your country and receive the chance of accessing their coaching session. Submissions are accepted starting now through April 6, 2022 April 17, 2022.
Meet Your Xbox Mentors
Hailey Geller (She/Her)
Xbox Social Marketing Manager
Region: US
Hailey is a strategic creative marketer who specializes in dreaming up evocative and meaningful campaigns for your favorite games and products.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Louise O´Connor (She/Her)
Executive Producer of Everwild
Region: UK
Louise has been working in the gaming industry for over 20 years and loves making games that players remember. Starting as an animator, she has had the privilege of working on some of the incredible Rare IPs that players all over the world enjoy. Now she is looking after the team responsible for creating the studio’s new exiting IP: Everwild.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Venessa Nyarko (She/Her)
Producer at The Coalition
Region: Canada
Venessa’s role at The Coalition involves bringing teams together to develop cohesive storytelling between gameplay, cinematics, and the sequences in between to create a unified experience for players. She develops the framework to make the best plays, getting the right people in the right conversations, and executing on bringing all the pieces together for an epic end result.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Tania Chee (She/Her)
Xbox Business Lead, Australia & New Zealand
Region: Australia & New Zealand
As Xbox Business Lead for Australia and New Zealand, Tania is responsible for driving the gaming platform’s business growth across the Tasman. Tania’s career spans 20+ years across roles in Australia and the UK from IT start-ups to managing Microsoft’s gaming, consumer software and office business through the retail channel.
Tania joined Team Xbox in 2008 in the UK and moved to the Australian business in 2011 driving Xbox’s subscription business, focused on subscriber growth and launching key app partners on the platform. Having also been involved in the success of multiple console generations and launches, Tania was announced as the Lead for Xbox ANZ in 2018 after a decade with the brand.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Ina Gelbert (She/Her)
Director of Xbox France
Region: France
As the first woman to lead the Xbox team in France, Ina’s main motivation is making gaming a diverse, safe and inclusive environment. With professional experiences in both the FMCG and gaming industries, she brings multi-cultural views and perspectives from various backgrounds to every discussion.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Melek Balgün (She/Her)
Esports | Web | TV | Event Host
Region: Germany, Austria & Switzerland
Melek is a former professional gamer and started her career at ESL. Hosting and moderating is second nature to her, both online and on the big stage. Her web magazine “Art of Gaming” for TV station arte was nominated for the Grimme Award in 2018.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Mie Koshimizu (She/Her)
Xbox Category Manager
Region: Japan
Originally from Japan, Mie is the Xbox Category Manager supporting the Asian Xbox team based in Singapore. She is known for her friendliness and enthusiasm for her work. Mie is passionate about advocating for Women in Gaming – especially across Asia – and encouraging all gamers, including people in industry, to share their passion. Since graduating with a Master’s degree in Business Analysis, Mie has extended her knowledge and skills in consumer, market analysis/research, and user experience as well as stories that identify customer requirements and needs. Always looking for a new challenge, she enjoys working in a demanding environment and is willing to learn new things every day.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
Boyoun Kim (She/Her)
Communications Manager Xbox
Region: Korea
Boyoun is a Communications Manager at Xbox and leads market communications across both Korea and Japan. She is seasoned in communications with deep regional experience in corporate reputation management, issues, and crisis communications. After receiving her Master’s in Social Policy from London School of Economics, Boyoun has built up a great understanding of planning and implementation of communications campaigns as well as regional digital and social media marketing strategies. She has over 10 years of experience having worked for hardware manufacturer Lenovo, Google and a German-based start-up.
Register here: xbox.com/mentoring
With the Xbox Mentoring Program, Xbox is opening up their world to inspire and support the next generation of women leaders in gaming. We are beyond excited to share our knowledge and hope that the program generates meaningful engagements with tangible and purposeful actions to help foster career development in the games industry. Visit the Xbox Mentoring Program website to learn more about the program.
Article By Kevin Austin
Kevin Austin has been in gaming journalism in one way or another since the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube. Married and father of 3 children he has been gaming since the ripe age of 6 when he got his first NES system and over 30 years later he is still gaming almost daily. Kevin is also co-founder of the Play Some Video Games (PSVG) Podcast network which was founded over five years ago and is still going strong. Some of his favorite gaming series includes Fallout and Far Cry, he is a sucker for single player adventure games (hence his big reviews for Playstation), and can frequently be found getting down in one battle royale or another. If it's an oddball game, odds are he's all about it.
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Twitter: @PSVGKevin