Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Hobbies and Interests
References
Accomplishments
Websites
References
Timeline
Generic

Jack Wood

Leander,USA

Summary

A seasoned video game professional with extensive experience in production, portfolio management, relationship management, and creative problem solving skills. Skilled in crafting narrative storytelling to promote ideas and solutions across marketing and game production. Motivated by a Player-Centric approach.

Overview

15
15
years of professional experience

Work History

Senior Director – Licensing and Partnership Management

Zynga
Austin, TX
05.2021 - Current
  • Responsible for owning the end to end relationship between our game studios and the licensor to ensure smooth and timely approvals that meet contractual obligations
  • Achieved 30% improvement in pipeline, roadmap, gate check ins and day to day submissions to licensor in first six months
  • Work with game leadership, producers and development directors to create and align strategic production vision across all disciplines within our partner organization
  • Partner closely with art, design, production and marketing teams to proactively understand and communicate partner pain points before an issue arises
  • Work closely with each of the disciplines within Lucasfilm including Games production, Marketing, Story and art teams to seek out synergistic and iconic moments that bring surprise and joy to the fanbase
  • Define and execute on strategic opportunities based on CI data and market analysis
  • Lead a team of producers who also have thorough knowledge of the IP and can provide proactive feedback and insights in order to move through the contractual approval process as efficiently as possible
  • Proven track record of excellent relationship skills that provide conflict resolution, opportunities and insights

Co-Founder

Ascension Films llc
Austin, TX
10.2022 - Current
  • Company Overview: Multi Awarding Winning Writer, Director, Producer of Narrative Films
  • Bring narrative stories to life through all aspects of film production
  • Shepherd projects through each cycle of development from idea generation and screenwriting to pre-production (story boarding, shot list creation, budgeting, casting, crew hire, location scouting) to production (management all aspects of crew on set, directing actor performances, working with DP on various shot types) through to post production (Editing, spotting sessions with composer and music supervisor, partner with colorist and more)

Senior Director – Partnership and Portfolio Management (Star Wars)

Electronic Arts
02.2018 - 05.2021
  • Oversee the Star Wars portfolio of games to ensure each game exceeds player expectations and achieves company targets
  • Build out the strategy and long-term road map for EA's Star Wars business
  • Developing and managing 5-year Star Wars SKU plan (in collaboration with Game EP's, Publishing & Marketing partners) specifically geared towards growing the SW universe and bringing the perception/reception of games to parity with feature films.
  • Pro-active management of relationship with Lucasfilm & DCPI executive teams and EA studios developing Star Wars games.
  • Continue the close collaboration with Lucasfilm Story Group and Creative Executives to establish key areas of storytelling for future Star Wars games.
  • Partnered with studio GM’s and Executive Producers to participate in gate and milestone reviews.
  • Collaborating with Head of Ops to assist in developing long range department planning and development strategies.
  • Responsible for leading a team of partner managers to deliver all Star Wars game development milestone approvals with the goal of maintaining consistency and strengthening relationships while also optimizing approval workflow for EA's development teams.
  • Partnered with Marketing and Publishing to develop core branding tenets and game pillars (brand bibles; brand frameworks).
  • Partnered with Marketing and Publishing to read trends, integrate player insights and develop distinctive and complementary product strategies that deliver a portfolio of Star Wars games that meet the broadest total player needs in the marketplace.

Senior Director Partner Engagement and Product Support

Electronic Arts
06.2015 - 02.2018
  • Built and maintained strategic partnerships with the leaders of Game Studio and Service organizations across EA and within first parties.
  • Proactively seek out potential customer support issues and resolve during game development process
  • Owned customer care success for EA's product & service lines – partner with the product/service teams and the functions across WWCE to achieve the care objectives set for each product and service.
  • Gained buy-in for EA's customer experience objectives, listen to and understand our partners' objectives, and drive shared success.
  • Developed world class customer care strategies for EA games and services that drove down contact rates, delivered best-in-class resolution rates, and reduced player effort.
  • Drove engagement with studio partners early in the game development framework.
  • Increased game integrations into the WWCE technology stack, enabling advisors globally with access to game and service specific tools.
  • Improved the actionability of insights delivered to partners.
  • Advocated for players on cross-functional councils and initiatives.
  • Acted as the escalation point for WWCE to our partners and for our partners to WWCE, removing roadblocks and driving action to support player improvements.

Expansion Producer - Star Wars the Old Republic

BioWare/Electronic Arts
12.2014 - 06.2015
  • Owned and championed product vision for the franchise.
  • Worked closely with creative director, art director, design, analytics and MTX teams to prioritize and implement monetization opportunities.
  • Worked with design and tech teams to minimize complexity costs.
  • Mitigation of all technology risk and large financial risk.
  • Performed routine risk assessment with team leadership.
  • Set priority scope and reevaluated on a regular basis to maximize feature quality and financial profitability.
  • Evangelized the product within the studio and outwards with the community via marketing and fan events.
  • Performed regular check ins with lead designer to consistently improve the user experience based on internal and external feedback.

Live Services and Support Tools Producer – Star Wars the Old Republic

BioWare/Electronic Arts
08.2010 - 12.2014
  • Maintain the integrity of the Live Service, including Web, Platform and Game.
  • Manage all live publishes and tracks emergent issues.
  • Plan and manage publishes, patches and hotfixes in the Live environments.
  • Manage communication of schedules, goals and objectives, status and progress of all publishes, promotions and patches to management and to the team.
  • Producer – Customer Service Tools and Technology Star Wars the Old Republic Key Responsibilities.
  • Responsible for the overall design, implementation and launch of in game support, Workforce Management and all CRM functionalities.
  • This support tool is used by agents worldwide.
  • Managed a team of 25+ that included in house and outsourced resources.
  • These resources included C#, C++, Java, QA, project managers, development directors and technical directors.
  • Prioritization of the master backlog of CS requirements.
  • Maintain appropriate staffing resource to budget ratios while still meeting launch objectives.
  • GUI design for in game as well as CRM/CSR interface.

Education

Some College (No Degree) - Business Administration and Psychology

Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX

Skills

  • Game production
  • Strategic planning
  • Relationship management
  • Problem-solving
  • Portfolio planning
  • Creative storytelling
  • Cross-functional team leadership
  • Budget management
  • Film directing
  • Narrative

Hobbies and Interests

  • Writer
  • Director
  • Producer of narrative films
  • Co-Founder Ascension Films LLC
  • IG: @ascensionfilms_llc

References

References available upon request

Accomplishments

  • More than 25 awards for short films I wrote, produced, directed
  • Examples: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31949462/awards/?ref_=tt_awd

References

References available upon request.

Timeline

Co-Founder

Ascension Films llc
10.2022 - Current

Senior Director – Licensing and Partnership Management

Zynga
05.2021 - Current

Senior Director – Partnership and Portfolio Management (Star Wars)

Electronic Arts
02.2018 - 05.2021

Senior Director Partner Engagement and Product Support

Electronic Arts
06.2015 - 02.2018

Expansion Producer - Star Wars the Old Republic

BioWare/Electronic Arts
12.2014 - 06.2015

Live Services and Support Tools Producer – Star Wars the Old Republic

BioWare/Electronic Arts
08.2010 - 12.2014

Some College (No Degree) - Business Administration and Psychology

Texas Tech University

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