The German Games Industry Association has announced that Stefan Heikhaus will serve as Gamescom’s next director.

His responsibilities include the continued development of the event and its sister events, such as Gamescom Asia and GamescomLAN. Heikhaus will be succeeding Christian Baur in the role.

Heikhaus’ professional career includes a six-year stint at Bullitt as a DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) marketing lead.

He also worked at Microsoft for three years as mobile senior category and operations manager for the DACH market. Heikhaus previously worked at Ubisoft and Sony in marketing leadership positions early in his career.

“Gamescom does more than set new standards for the dynamic games industry again and again – it’s also an outstanding event format that is closely followed by other industries around the globe,” said Heikhaus.

“That’s because events like Gamescom where everyone – from trade visitors to the community at large – meet, are of tremendous importance, even for digital media like games.”