Mihai Pohonţu

Mihai Pohonţu Email and Phone Number

CEO of Amber @ Amber
Mihai Pohonţu's Location
San Francisco, California, United States, United States
Mihai Pohonţu's Contact Details
About Mihai Pohonţu

Business romantic and social entrepreneur, inspired to develop creative ventures in emerging markets. Currently leading Amber, a global game development agency. Past experience includes running Samsung's developer relations and innovation partnership programs, overseeing the operational functions of Disney's interactive entertainment portfolio and managing Electronic Arts' multi-disciplinary development services organization, supporting 18 studios around the world. Mihai was the Founder and General Manager of EA Romania, one of the largest game studios in Eastern Europe. Regular contributor to international industry events and publications, including GamesBeat, Pocket Gamer, Casual Connect, Gamelab, Gamereactor, DevPlay and Mobile World Congress. Specialties: multi-platform game development, enterprise-level operational strategy and execution, development services for creative industries, international distributed development, emerging markets, social entrepreneurship, digital entertainment.

Mihai Pohonţu's Current Company Details
Amber

Amber

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CEO of Amber
Mihai Pohonţu Work Experience Details
  • Amber
    Chairman, Chief Executive
    Amber Mar 2017 - Present
    Bucharest, Sector 1, Ro
    Driving Amber's leap to the next level: evolving into the game development agency of choice for partners and players everywhere. Our vision is to assemble the industry's leading talent in production, engineering, design, art and data science into our multi-track studio and service teams, in order to deliver a reference solution for publishers and developers. We're leveraging our expertise in free-to-play design, live operations, cross-platform deployment and parallel launch strategies to deliver world-class game development services, while investing in technology R&D to cement our reputation as innovation partner for creative industries.
  • Arden
    Board Director
    Arden Feb 2021 - Present
    Arden is a non-profit charity of the game development community, pursuing educational and cultural programs for social impact.
  • Pattern
    Board Director
    Pattern 2017 - 2023
    Bucharest, Sector 1, Ro
    Pattern is a boutique design agency based in Bucharest, providing branding, video production and web development. Its vision is to aggregate top creative talent via a global network of freelancers in order to offer superlative design services to discriminate customers around the world. It has delivered over 840 projects on behalf of 80 clients and garnered 4 Cannes Lions, 4 Effies and 3 Webstock Awards.
  • Carbon Incubator
    Board Director
    Carbon Incubator 2017 - 2021
    Bucharest, Ro
    Carbon's mission is to support indie game studios in emerging markets reach their full artistic and commercial potential. The company's long-term social mission is to facilitate the formation of games industry ecosystems, by bringing publishing, incubation, acceleration and operational services to game dev communities in underserved, yet high-potential regions such as Eastern Europe, Latin America and South-East Asia.
  • Samsung
    Vp, Emerging Platforms
    Samsung 2014 - 2017
    Schiphol, Nl
    Leading a portfolio group within Samsung Electronics America, aimed at expanding the company's software development ecosystem: Developer Program: Responsible for developer outreach, content, social media, training programs and community support. We organize Samsung's presence at 40+ developer events annually, including "Samsung Development Conference", held each year at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Publishing: Overseeing the development, merchandising and marketing of the NA Galaxy Stores (Apps, Essentials, Gifts, Gear, Kids), as well as business development efforts focused on sourcing premium software content and services for the company's consumer electronics product line. Software Solutions: A product development organization supporting "Made for Samsung", the company's co-development partner program, aimed at creating differentiated, cross-platform experiences for Samsung devices (mobile, tablet, wearables, TV and VR). Service Innovation: Pursuing blue ocean innovation in software services, by co-ideating with industry leaders in each product category, partnering with top research agencies and engaging the wider developer community. Operational Services: Offering an array of development services to the internal business verticals and external partners, including Quality Assurance, Customer Experience, Deployment, SysOps, Technical Support and Carrier Relations.
  • The Walt Disney Company
    Vp Product Operations, Disney Interactive
    The Walt Disney Company Mar 2012 - Sep 2014
    Burbank, Ca, Us
    Overseeing Disney Interactive's product development services solution, comprised of over 600 staff distributed across 9 locations on 3 continents and organized in the following functions:Partners: A production group overseeing co-development and licensing projects, responsible for leveraging Disney properties and franchise priorities to deliver high quality entertainment created by external studios and publishers. Games launched in CY13 include My Singing Muppets, Disney Infinity Action!, Ducktales: Scrooge's Loot and Frozen Free Fall.Digital Product Services: A post-production organization focused on the porting, conversion and adaptation of content, in order to maximize revenue opportunities by redeploying the company's product slate to new platforms and international partners. Internationalization: A project management group responsible for sourcing translated text and localized voice-overs in all foreign languages supported by Disney Interactive's product slate, ensuring the content matches Disney franchise standards and providing globalization consulting.Guest Experience: Delivering global customer support, moderation, community management and reporting to the product development verticals at Disney Interactive.Quality Assurance: A global software testing group providing functional, linguistic, certification, live service and system QA services for console, mobile and open web products, as well as handling first party submissions to all platform partners.Operational Intelligence: A group charged with defining the Disney Development Framework, disseminating development best practices, Agile production planning, managing the slate and acting as the PMO of Product Ops.
  • Electronic Arts (Ea)
    Vp, General Manager, Mosaic
    Electronic Arts (Ea) Jun 2011 - Feb 2012
    Redwood City, Ca, Us
    Leading EAi's product services organization, supporting the company's worldwide mobile development strategy. The Mosaic portfolio comprises product deployment, platform conversion, device launches, embeds, live ops/maintenance, quality assurance and certification. Mosaic's development centers are based in 10 different locations on 3 continents, working with 16+ studios.
  • Electronic Arts (Ea)
    Vp, General Manager, Central Development Services
    Electronic Arts (Ea) Apr 2009 - May 2011
    Redwood City, Ca, Us
    Responsible for EA’s shared services portfolio, comprised of seven business units: Quality Assurance, Localization, Customer Experience, Certification, Outsourcing, Motion Capture and Mastering; operating in 15 countries across North America, Europe and Asia, supporting 18 development studios, with over 900 permanent staff and an additional 1,200 contracted resources at peak, for a total budget of $110M. The group supported the delivery of EA’s '09/10/11 product slate, consisting of more than 30 titles per year, deployed across multiple platforms (X360, PS3, Wii, PC, Mac), such as Sims 3, Need for Speed, FIFA, Madden, Dragon Age, Rock Band, Dante’s Inferno and others.
  • Electronic Arts (Ea)
    Senior Director, Worldwide Quality Assurance
    Electronic Arts (Ea) Aug 2007 - Mar 2009
    Redwood City, Ca, Us
    Leading EA's Quality Assurance organization, enabling the dissemination of test strategies, methodologies and tools among all regions; with an aim towards improving the quality of the testing, increasing operational efficiency and broadening the professional scope of the services provided to the development studios.
  • Electronic Arts (Ea)
    General Manager, Ea Romania
    Electronic Arts (Ea) Feb 2006 - Aug 2007
    Redwood City, Ca, Us
    Leading a fully-integrated studio that developed and launched the mobile games "Medal of Honor" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", a Deployment operation covering the product requirements of the European market and an Enabling Technology group focused on R&D. EA Romania was formed through the acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile, so the role entailed responsibility for scaling operations and aligning processes to the practices of the broader company.
  • Jamdat Mobile
    General Manager
    Jamdat Mobile Jul 2005 - Feb 2006
    Founded the JAMDAT Mobile studio in Bucharest, Romania, subsequently acquired by Electronic Arts; developed the company to a staff of 160+ engineers, artists, producers and testers, including a fully-integrated studio, a Deployment operation covering the product requirements of the European market and an Enabling Technology group focused on R&D and maintaining the operator distribution systems.
  • Jamdat Mobile
    Qa Manager
    Jamdat Mobile 2003 - Jul 2005
    Joined the company as the 20th employee, responsible for managing the QA operations in the Los Angeles office, and tasked with maintaining uniform test procedures across the international branches: Montreal and Honolulu. Grew the team from 5 testers to 70+ staff, while simultaneously developing a full set of operational methodologies to support the QA process in the emerging, uncharted field of mobile games development.
  • Activision
    Qa Project Lead
    Activision 2001 - 2003
    Santa Monica, California, Us
    Supervised the QA process for 20+ projects, while managing teams of up to 25 testers.
  • Xdrive
    Senior Qa Engineer
    Xdrive 2000 - 2001
    Us
    Coordinated testing for various software products and services designed to present, store and share information distributed via the internet.
  • Activision
    Qa Tester
    Activision 1999 - 2000
    Santa Monica, California, Us
    Credited on 12 titles, including classics like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Medieval Total War, Vampire: The Masquerade, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Civilization: Call to Power.

Mihai Pohonţu Skills

Video Games Mobile Games Mobile Devices Mobile Applications Game Development Quality Assurance Management Social Games Start Ups Agile Methodologies Casual Games Computer Games Digital Distribution Game Design Monetization Team Management Testing Online Gaming Outsourcing Agile Project Management Iphone Xbox 360 Scrum Ps3 Console Games Software Quality Assurance Mmo Customer Experience Ios Localization Gaming Leadership Strategy Wii Console Social Skills

Mihai Pohonţu Education Details

  • Ucla
    Ucla
    International Relations

Frequently Asked Questions about Mihai Pohonţu

What company does Mihai Pohonţu work for?

Mihai Pohonţu works for Amber

What is Mihai Pohonţu's role at the current company?

Mihai Pohonţu's current role is CEO of Amber.

What is Mihai Pohonţu's email address?

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What is Mihai Pohonţu's direct phone number?

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What schools did Mihai Pohonţu attend?

Mihai Pohonţu attended Ucla.

What skills is Mihai Pohonţu known for?

Mihai Pohonţu has skills like Video Games, Mobile Games, Mobile Devices, Mobile Applications, Game Development, Quality Assurance, Management, Social Games, Start Ups, Agile Methodologies, Casual Games, Computer Games.

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