Marilena is a seasoned marketing and communications expert with a keen eye for brand development and a passion for team building and leadership. She has held several senior positions in the video games industry, including Directing the brand marketing efforts of Frontier Developments and Heading the global marketing and communications department of Koei Tecmo Games. Previously, she spent a decade working in various managerial positions in the marketing and communications team of Sony Music Entertainment. Combining the passions of gaming and music, she has developed a good sense of how the entertainment industry functions and how best to build strategies geared towards reaching, developing, and nurturing dedicated fanbases and communities across a wide spectrum of spaces.
In 2019, she was named one of the 100 most influential women in the UK games industry by GI.biz and nominated for a Game Industry Hero award in the Leadership category.
In 2024, she was a finalist for an MCV/Develop Women in Games Award in the Career Mentor of the Year category. She is also a games and women in STEM career mentor, being part of the European Innovation Council’s Women in Leadership mentor programme, lending her expertise to help guide and develop women leaders within the technology sector, as well as Limit Break, and Game Changers mentor programme for Games London, working to support games industry professionals from underrepresented backgrounds progress with their careers in the industry.
As a long-term Women in Games ambassador, she joins forces with women and allies around the world to establish a gaming industry, culture and community free from discrimination, where full equity of opportunity, treatment and conditions empowers all girls and women, from all ethnicities, of all orientations, to achieve their full potential in the games and esports industries.
Today, she is part of GameFlex Consultants and leads Eostrix Games and marketing, working to strengthen the understanding and importance of Product/Market Fit research and Marketing Strategy integration at the early stages of game development.