Management Team
Chief Executive Officer (founder) — Steve Bocska
(B.A., M.A., MBA) possesses nearly a decade of direct experience in the interactive entertainment industry, having worked for Disney Interactive, Black Box (E.A.), and Radical Entertainment in roles of lead designer, producer, and executive producer. In 2006, Steve became a founding CEO of Hothead Games, helping raise over $6 million in private equity financing and winning the Canadian New Media Association’s award for “Most Promising New Company of 2007.” He was nominated for the “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year” award in the same year.
Steve also possesses extensive business planning and award-winning strategic planning skills, and is skilled at anticipating trends and patterns within the interactive industry. He is regularly requested to speak at high-profile industry events, and has spoken at the Game Developer’s Conference (San Jose, California), South by Southwest (Austin, Texas), Vancouver International Game Summit (Vancouver, BC), VIDFEST (Vancouver, BC), Banff New Media Festival (Banff, Alberta), GameON Finance (Toronto, Ontario), and others. He has also advised and consulted for more than 100 business startups and organizations in the roles of business planner, strategic planner, market analyst, and operations advisor. Steve has 10 years of post-secondary education, including an M.B.A. (Entrepreneurship) and M.A. (Planning).
Chief Technology Advisor – David Dossot
(M.Sc., diploma ESSTIN) brings more than 15 years of professional experience to the Pug Pharm team after holding similar positions at software development firms and global online gaming and entertainment companies. His experience runs the gamut from start-ups to large firms and global institutions, where he has provided technical guidance and code contributions to many teams, with a particular focus on refactoring and re-architecting software platforms towards scalable architectures.
Well-known and active in the technical community, Dossot is a member of the IEEE and the Computer Society. In addition to speaking appearances, he is the co-author of “Mule in Action” (2009, Manning Publications), and has written contributions for O’Reilly, Dr. Dobb’s Journal and Software Development Magazine. An advocate of the open source community, Dossot has led a number of prolific open source projects. He is a member of Mule’s Community Committee and serves as an official judge for the DDJ’s Jolt Product Excellence Awards. His educational background includes a Baccalaureate degree in Mathematics & Physics (Lycée Alfred Mézières, Longwy, France); Mechanical & Electrical Engineering (Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK); and a Diploma in Production Systems Engineering (ESSTIN, Nancy, France).
(BA, BCIT diploma), with16 years in the software industry, has held responsibility for the design, delivery, and support of several highly successful products and services. Most recently, he led the product team at Exponentia Communications Corporation and, working with TSN and several professional sports franchises, oversaw the delivery of several versions of its flagship PlayAction.tv games. Prior to that, Craig held senior management roles as Director of Product Development at Talent Technology Corporation and Director of Quality Assurance at Schema Software Inc.
Craig has been also been speaker and conference presenter on software development methodologies. He has a BA from UBC and a Diploma of Engineering Technology from BCIT.
VP Marketing—Hillary Samson
(B.A., MBA) is a Sales and Marketing professional with over 15 years experience in both online and offline environments in various industries including hospitality, publishing, and advanced technology. Most recently, Hillary was the Manager, Interactive Marketing for AbeBooks, the world’s largest online retailer of books. There she led the team responsible for both website content and the highly successful Email Marketing program.
Hillary’s online technical experience includes three years as a Senior Product Manager for AbeBooks, where she was responsible for several projects including gathering and writing requirements for the database structure rewrite, paying particular attention to ensure data mining access to relevant product and sales data for both customer and internal use.
With a keen interest in entrepreneurship, Hillary owned and operated a small business in the publishing industry for several years. She has also consulted on numerous business plans for companies and organizations, and participates as a mentor to students interested in launching their own companies. Hillary has been involved with many industry organizations including the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce (Board of Directors), Volunteer Victoria (Vice President), VIATeC (Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Center), and Tourism Victoria.
VP Communications—Jodi Regts
(B.A., MBA) Jodi is a communications professional with more than 10 years’ experience in strategic communications, investor relations, marketing communications, stakeholder consultation, and media relations. She has led in-house communications for publicly-traded companies, including Angiotech Pharmaceuticals and Forbes Medi-Tech. Jodi also held the position of Manager, eBusiness & Marketing for Citizens Bank of Canada, Canada’s first online bank. In a consulting capacity, Jodi has provided strategic advice to businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies, with a particular focus on web-based communicating. Since owning her first video game—a tabletop Coleco Pac-Man—Jodi has been an avid gamer, and is a published contributor “Secrets of the Game Business” (Charles River Media Publications).
Jodi has a BA in English Literature and MBA (International Business). She is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), and the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI). Jodi also sits on the CIRI BC Programs Committee, which plans professional development activities for investor relations and communications professionals.