THE STARTING LINEUP
Founded in 2018 by industry veterans Jon Middleton and Pete Wanat, Nifty Games is hard at work building the next generation of head to head quick session mobile games.

JON MIDDLETON
Chief Executive Officer

Pete Wanat
Chief CREATIVE Officer
Mr. Wanat is a 20+ year industry veteran and creative leader, integrating sports & entertainment IP’s into games throughout the evolution of console, PC and mobile F2P games. As former VP of Production for Universal Games division he delivered the 5th most downloaded game of all time Despicable Me: Minion Rush, and top ten grossing games surrounding major brands such as Jurassic Park.
Dan Wasson
VP OF PRODUCTION AND OPS
Mr. Wasson joins Nifty Games with over 25 years in leadership roles at Electronic Arts, LucasArts, Kabam, and Wargaming. He has shipped dozens of AAA and free-to-play games in his career, with expertise building teams and managing publishing and development around the globe.
TOM SHOENHAIR
CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER
With over 25 years leading game development teams and companies, Mr. Shoenhair has held senior roles with Zynga and WB Games, and was a founding member of Page 44. Mr. Shoenhair has a proven track record of delivering profitable franchises in highly competitive markets.
Ibs Rageh
VP OF ENGINEERING
Mr. Rageh started in QA in 2003 with Electronic Arts and has worked his way up to Engineering Leadership via stints at Page 44, Zynga, and WB Games over his 16+ years in the industry. He brings a pragmatic, collaborative, and iterative approach to leading internal and external development teams in creating fun, intuitive games with a player-first focus.
DAVID MICHICICH
GENERAL MANAGER - CHICAGO
WILLIAM SCHMITT
GENERAL MANAGER - NFL
Mr. Schmitt brings a 26+ year proven track record of creating hit franchises to Nifty Games. Throughout his career he has held key roles at Electronic Arts, Activision, THQ, Disney and most recently Scopely, where he launched and then managed a top 100 free-to-play mobile game for more than 3 years.
DAVID PRICE
SENIOR PRODUCER
With more than a decade of production experience in the games industry, Mr. Price has amassed over 1 billion downloads across titles on mobile, console and PC. From Minion Rush to Jurassic World, David has helped to refine the gaming identity for major entertainment brands.
JOHNSON LEE
DIRECTOR OF STUDIO OPS
Mr. Lee is a 18+ year industry veteran with expertise in building world class internal teams and scaling external partners, and former head of QA for Warner Brothers, Age of Learning, and RockYou. A strong advocate for quality and efficiency, Mr. Lee has helped launch title such as The Sims 2, SimCity 4, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite.
JOnathan Bach
HEAD OF CENTRAL PRODUCT
Mr. Bach brings over 20 years of experience leading development teams, running Product and launching titles for interactive entertainment companies including Zynga, Electronic Arts, Gazillion Entertainment, and Leapfrog. Most recently he was head of product at Baobab studios where he brought Emmy Award-winning VR experiences to market.
DAN SORGE
Senior Designer
Mr. Sorge brings over 14 years of experience designing in the interactive entertainment space across multiple platforms and location-based projects for SFMOMA, LeapFrog, and Anki. He draws on his diverse knowledge and a collaborative approach to create great user experiences producing feature designs and documentation.
MICHAEL CUCULICH
HEAD OF USER ACQUISITION
Mr. Cuculich is an accomplished, versatile performance marketer with over a decade of experience that brings a results-oriented mindset, fueled by an analytical, data-driven perspective and sharp creative sensibility. He most recently built and led the performance marketing team at Clutter, and drove user acquisition prior to that at PlayQ.
JOHN CALCAGNO
TECHNICAL ART DIRECTOR
In a career spanning 20+ years of console and mobile game development, Mr. Calcagno has provided artistic and technical leadership for hit titles to internal and external development teams. He has shipped numerous games including NBA Live, NBA Street, Fight Night, Tony Hawk, and WWE Mayhem.
ERIC WACKERFUSS
LEAD DESIGNER
Mr. Wackerfuss got his start at Midway Chicago, and has shipped titles including Mortal Kombat, Stranglehold, and Tony Hawk. With 18+ years of industry experience, he uses his extensive knowledge of feature/system design, documentation, and production, to drive content creation, iteration, & balancing.
CHRIS CHATEL
ANIMATION DIRECTOR
Mr. Chatel joins Nifty Games with over 12 years of industry experience from Activision, Scopely, and Zynga. He has contributed to multiple games on console and mobile platforms: Tony Hawk, Skateboard Slam, Snowfall, Blade Battle, and WWE Mayhem. Chris is passionate about making games, and it shows in his work.
NEETU GEORGE
SR. SOFTWARE ENGINEER
ANDY KIM
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Mr. Kim brings over 6 years experience in the mobile games industry, providing organized production support and leadership for multiple internal and external game teams on a global scale across various genres. He has shipped and worked on numerous brands, such as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Family Guy, Adventure Time, and Aliens.
LEO KORO
2D/UI ARTIST
Mr. Koro is a games industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, specializing in UI/UX, 2D/3D and AR. He has contributed to global titles such as Call of Duty, Tiger Woods, The Sims, Tetris and Guitar Hero Van Halen, at studios including Electronic Arts, Facebook and Activision.
JENNY LIN
HEAD OF MARKETING
Ms. Lin has held senior marketing and brand management positions at major entertainment and gaming companies such as Electronic Arts, Disney, and Jam City. Throughout her career she has launched console and mobile games for world-class brands including The Simpsons, Family Guy, Marvel, Disney / Pixar, and the UFC.
SYDNEY FOE
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
BRENDAN LE TOURNEAU
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Mr. Le Tourneau joined Nifty Games in 2021 and is thrilled to start a career in the games industry. With a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from San Diego State University, and an internship at WB Games San Francisco, he is excited to put his knowledge to good use.
Tony NGUYEN
2D / UI Artist
Mr. Nguyen has been working in mobile games for 10+ years. He brings with him an expertise in concept, visual ideation, prototyping and compelling user Interface design for the casual mobile market. Cross-collaboration is his jam and he believes it's what helps developers make great games. His past stops include Zynga, Shiver Entertainment, N3TWORK, WithIn VR, and Oculus VR.
ARVEE VERAME
DEV QA LEAD
Mr. Verame brings 5+ years of QA experience, both in games and software. He started his career in games at Indigo Entertainment - Philippines working on indie titles and projects for Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network. Prior to joining Nifty Games, he stood his ground as the sole QA of NeuroFlow, building the QA team and processes.
Chris Acquaviva
interim cfo
Mr. Acquaviva joins Nifty with over 25 years experience leading and growing global media and entertainment, technology and telecommunication infrastructure companies. As a financial and operations executive, he led three successful growth companies to exits producing over $5B in aggregate net proceeds for shareholders.
RAY STAKENAS
QA ANALYST
Mr. Stakenas has been working in the world of games for over a decade, having worked for Games Workshop, Square Enix, Infinity Ward, and Respawn. Ray believes that fun should be the core of everything, and has helped shape the quality of games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Apex Legends. Ray is also a lifetime Detroit Lions fan who will never stop believing.