Celebrate International Women’s Day with EA

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2017 we’re excited to share profiles of some of our amazing women in technical, creative, and leadership roles here at EA.

From design to development, marketing to management, and all around the world, there are so many amazing stories to share. We’re proud to spotlight just a few of them here.

Want to join the celebration? Use #BeBoldForChange on social and be a part of International Women’s Day!

EA Melbourne / Firemonkeys

Belinda Cheng

I’m an Associate User Interface Artist on the Real Racing 3 team. As a UI artist, I design the visuals of the in-game quests pages, logos, banners, app icons and key art, while keeping within the visual guidelines of the branding. On the side, I help create marketing interstitials and localise these images into 12 different languages.

How long have you been at EA:
A year and a half.

Greatest memory at EA:
Last year, our studio organised a lunch in the park for International Women’s Day. It made me appreciate the support from my fellow female colleagues, and really understand we’re in this industry together as a team.

Greatest achievement at EA:
Getting the opportunity to work on the key art for the Need for Speed™ No Limits Lil Wayne update. It was my first major achievement while at EA. And being able to see my work released to the public definitely gave me a sense of accomplishment.

Favourite video game:
The Sims.

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
Surround yourself with people who have the same passion and interest as you, especially people who are already in the gaming industry. They have so much experience and knowledge to share, and as a starter this is what you need to help push you forward in your career.

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
Start from donating to groups that provide support for women suffering from domestic violence and assaults. Acknowledge and address the issue, and not be afraid to speak out against violence.

EA Vancouver

Krista Parham

I’m an Associate User Experience Researcher. If you’ve ever been playing a game and accidentally thrown a grenade when you meant to reload, or ever felt like the game was working against you, my job is to design and run playtests to find those issues so that the game team can make changes. I work to help the game be challenging, but the good kind.

How long have you been at EA:
Since July 2016.

Greatest memory at EA:
The first time I saw a change go into a game to address an issue that players were experiencing in our tests. Everyone here is trying to make the best game possible, and that was a great moment to see that.

Greatest achievement at EA:
I helped run research on Mass Effect: Andromeda. Mass Effect is what made me want to work in video games, so you can imagine how exciting that was for me!

Favourite video game:
Mass Effect 3.

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
Find a thing you like doing and then find a way to apply it to video games. There are so many different roles and jobs in the industry. It’s great to focus on the programming and engineering side, but if that’s not your thing you can get into the industry just as you are already, doing what you love.

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
We’re working to get more women to sign up for playtesting. It would be great to include the experiences of more women who are players when we run our playtests. If you’re reading this and want to play games before they come out, sign up! Guys are also wanted.

I believe that changing mindsets will be key to accelerate gender parity.

EA Mexico

Emmanuelle Stevenin

Head of marketing, EA Games LATAM. I am responsible for the marketing strategy of non-Sports EA titles in Latin America. Our core markets include Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Colombia. My position caters to a fairly large scope of franchises such as Battlefield, Titanfall, Mass Effect, and The Sims, among others.

How long have you been at EA:
3 and a half years.

Greatest memory at EA:
Every time I speak out about our games in front on the press, influencers, clients or partners. I love to share with them what titles are coming, their new features, and what makes them unique. As a woman in gaming, it is important to feel your voice is credible and important.

Greatest achievement at EA:
I guess growing from the position of Marketing and PR manager to Head of Marketing for EA Games two years ago. This move really helped us give focus and priority to the Games Franchises in Latin America.

Favourite video game:
Titanfall 2 this year, it made me feel I can be good at an FPS, and I loved the story! From EA: Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2, Dragon Age, Dead Space, Unravel. I try my best at Battlefield but I’m too bad for the multiplayer part. From other publishers: a big fan of horror genre with Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Doom, and lately I've had a crush on Overwatch which is also easy and fun to play.

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
I think that the gaming industry is one of the most open and diverse of all, as is our audience now. So my advice is to be fearless, always make yourself heard with a strong voice, and work with passion. Passion is contagious independently of your gender.
Also, I would say that EA is a great place to work in general, as a woman and a mother, I’ve always been backed up in my professional career and supported to maintain my work life balance.

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
I want to do several things:
- Boost the careers of my women colleagues and direct reports
- Take a mentorship and learn from a senior woman at EA
- Play football again, and contribute to the best of my abilities to the recognition of women in that sport
- Teach my little baby girl to be strong and make her feel sure that she can accomplish anything she aspires to!

EA Redwood Shores

Eileen Chiew

I’m the Production Strategy Lead, on the Global Lifecycle Marketing team. I lead the production and coordination of digital marketing content for a portfolio of EA video games, supported across the email channel.

How long have you been at EA:
4.5 years.

Greatest memory at EA:
Moving countries! I started working at EA in the Sydney Australia office, and relocated to EA Redwood Shores in late 2015. EA has been supportive of my career development, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to move half way across the world. I get to work with amazing people every day.

Greatest achievement at EA:
Being part of the team who launched the first EA website in Arabic, to support FIFA players in the Middle East. Sounds simple enough, but there was a lot of late nights, planning and QA involved.

Favourite video game:
LittleBigPlanet.

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
Don’t undervalue yourself - passion and willingness to learn will get you far! I wasn’t hired at EA for the first job I applied for, but a month later I applied for another role and was successful.

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
I’ll donate and volunteer for groups that support women.

Stockholm, Sweden.

Tabitha Hayes

I am a Vice President of Global Brand Management. My team partners with our development studios in Europe to build our long-range brand, product and live services strategies across franchises such as Battlefield and Need for Speed.

How long have you been at EA:
8.5 years.

Greatest memory at EA:
It’s so hard to choose just one, but I must go with working on Need for Speed World with a producer that years later became my husband.

Greatest achievement at EA:
Coaching and mentoring emerging leaders.

Favourite video game:
I’ve been playing video games for 30+ years…since I was born. Favourites go in life stages for me. Right now, I play mostly shooting and racing games as they are the focus of my portfolio, but my most recent time suck was Civilization VI.

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
You don’t have to make games to be in the gaming industry. There are so many different roles and career opportunities. Be curious, open to the possibilities and build relationships.

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
Be a champion for Diversity & Inclusion at EA.

Ghost Games, Gothenburg, Sweden

Pernilla Akterhall

I am a Development Manager, which I usually describe as being part project manager and part line manager. Currently most of my time is spent working with our backlog, trying to keep the scope under control while also making sure that my team can work as effectively as possible with burning down the scope during our work sprints.

How long have you been at EA:
Since July 2015, so roughly 1½ years.

Greatest memory at EA:
I have so many great memories from my time here at Ghost so to just name one isn’t possible. I remember when we launched Need for Speed and “9pm ice cream” became a thing for a week for those of us that worked late, the launch party that ended with a much needed goodie-bag filled with a bottle of water and a sandwich (that was devoured at 3pm when the club closed), the second Development Director Summit where I ended up dressing up in a penguin one-piece to record a short film about peer reviews (fingers crossed that the tape has been burned…) and the first “Ghost Fit” workout session that included so many burpees that I never wanted to do one ever again. It’s all these memories and the knowledge that there will be more of them that makes the long days and periods of crunch so worth it.

Greatest achievement at EA:
It would be hard for me to achieve much without my team, since they are the ones executing on the work that me and my producer have planned for them for a sprint. My achievements are their achievements so to speak.
In general I would say that the greatest achievement that I have been part of so far while working at EA must be to have been part of launching Need for Speed and also being part of the Live Service after release.

Favourite video game:
I love RPGs and I always have, so it is really hard to name just one. I have so many great memories from the SNES era when I played Secret of Mana, Lufia 2 and Final Fantasy VI on the SNES with my brother (with our parents as translators at the time), but lately my favourites have been Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
I would give the same advice to those girls as I would give to anyone who would like to make a career in any industry they are interested in: Go for it!
Remember that everyone in this industry, whichever position they have now, have been new to the industry at some point - just like you.

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
I will continue to speak up when I notice things that aren't right, for example when condescending language is used, no matter if it was directed to females, people of a different nationality, members of the LGBT community or any other group.

Cologne, EA Germany

Aurelie Bondon

As a project manager, my role is to support the creation of our beautiful game trailers and videos. My main task is to organize our artists’ work in collaboration with our Creative Lead, and I occasionally organise live action capture and voice over recording sessions. I am also responsible for the budget and schedule of our videos.

How long have you been at EA:
I started as a Localisation intern in 2007… Already 10 years ago although it feels like yesterday! Then I worked on and off for EA in various locations until I was permanently hired in 2010 in the Localisation department. In 2015, I joined our Global Communication Group to produce game videos.

Greatest memory at EA:
I have countless great memories from my first day at EA, to celebrating game launches, trying VR in Star Wars Battlefront, delivering my very first trailer.

Greatest achievement at EA:
I studied translation, and at that time I did not really expect that I would produce video game trailers. It has been a long journey and I am grateful that EA gave me this unique career development opportunity.
It has not always been easy but I had a great team that surrounded me and get me to the next level.

Favourite video game:
I love the Mass Effect series. I just can’t wait to have my hands on Mass Effect Andromeda!

What is your advice for girls who love gaming and might be considering a career in the industry?
Go for it! There is no reason why you shouldn’t start a career in the gaming industry. We are our own best advocates!

How will you #BeBoldForChange?
I think it is important to challenge bias and inequality. I believe that changing mindsets will be key to accelerate gender parity.
That starts with simple things that we do on a daily basis. For example, at work, I keep an eye on the way we depict female characters in our videos, and as well as lyrics of the music we pick for our trailers.

How have you been bold for change? Use #BeBoldForChange on Twitter and tell us!

Interested in working in gaming? Visit our careers site.

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