People
Michael Smith CEO
Michael has been fascinated by games and puzzles ever since receiving a copy of Masquerade for his seventh birthday. More recent distractions have included Poker, Go, Set, Sensible Soccer, Burnout Paradise, and Guitar Hero. In his early twenties he co-founded the online retailer, Firebox.com. Firebox recently featured in 13th place on the Sunday Times Fast Track list of fastest growing companies in Britain. Michael launched Mind Candy in 2003 and development on Perplex City began soon after. Michael’s interest in Monsters probably stems from reading too much Dr Seuss and Maurice Sendak as a child.
Divinia Knowles Finance Director
Divinia is Mind Candy’s meticulously organised Finance Director whipping everyone at Mind Candy into shape (the whip’s a hangover from her Archaeology degree from the University of Wales at Lampeter) where she had a love of digging, dinosaurs and (we assume) Indiana Jones.
Post university Divinia’s passion for old stuff led her into the antiques industry for a number of years, until the need to look for new pastures (and jellybeans) got the better of her.
While she’s nearly a fully qualified management accountant, don’t let that fool you: underneath that love of numbers and all things ledger-like, you’re likely to meet up with her sooner or later if you too spend your (well scheduled) time gig-going, surfing, snowboarding, DIY-ing, cycling, running, wedding-cake-baking or puzzling.
Toby Moore Head of Technology
After spending 3 months traveling from Russia to Bali (almost) overland, Toby decided it was time to find something juicy back home
in blighty to get his teeth into, and within 2 weeks moved to London to start work for Mind Candy.
Perhaps not a normal BSc(Hons) in Software Engineering student, Toby likes to spend his spare time surfing, snowboarding and scuba
diving when the weather permits, and behind either his Digital SLR or Acoustic Guitar when it doesn’t.
A big fan of puzzles, Toby is also currently learning to play the ancient Chinese game “Go”, with the hope that one day will be able
to provide good competition to Michael the CEO.
Ed Relf Head of Global Marketing
Ed joined Mind Candy after being lured away from the dark world of MMO gaming where he had previously managed the marketing efforts for the hugely successful MMORPG games Warhammer Online and The Lord of the Rings Online to name but a few.
After spending 10+ years directing / heading up the marketing divisions for many successful online gaming companies he finally saw the light and joined Mind Candy! Hooray!
Famous for his global travelling adventures, Ed has taken his biggest travelling expedition yet packing his bags and traveling 60 miles from Oxford to London to join us at Mind Candy. :)
Across Ed’s career he has released over 100 games and has one of the biggest games collections known to man. A lover of studying (boring) and playing board games (geek) Ed is now heading up Mind Candy’s global marketing efforts.
Emma Smith Bookkeeper, Office Manager & PA
After spending the past 4 years working as an Accounts Administrator in the recruitment industry, Emma thought it was time for a bit of variety, so joined Mind Candy as their Bookkeeper, Office Manager & PA.
When not keeping things organised or making sure everyone’s caffeine levels remain dangerously high, she spends her time (and most of her money) buying shoes that cause her to fall over and ridiculously big handbags.
Not an advanced gamer like the rest of the Mind Candies, she still owns a Sega Megadrive and refuses to throw it out until she completes Mickey Mania – a game that’s been beating her since she was eight!
Jey Biddulph Game Designer
Jey first arrived in the employ of Mind Candy while attempting to steal the secrets of Perplex City. Unfortunately, his disguise
worked too well and someone, mistaking him for a colleague with too much free time on their hands, set him to work. To this day, he vows
to escape from the labyrinth that is the office but is hampered by those pesky deadlines that keep appearing.
Eric Harshbarger Puzzle Designer
Eric Harshbarger likes to think of puzzle design for Mind Candy/Perplex City as being very high on his “cool-things-to-do-in-life list”.
And, considering that past items on that list include: building sculptures out of LEGO bricks,
studying to become an expert tournament Scrabble player in three years, maintaining the
“authorized website” for a famous (infamous?) actress in the late 90s, and other weird endeavors such as building a scale model of the Eiffel
Tower out of BBs and tiny magnets, and getting to walk on the roof of the East Wing of the White House… finding a new entry to go on the “cool list” gets harder and harder all the time.
Jack McCall Web Producer
An avid gamer since he discovered the Space Invaders machine at his local corner store in Brooklyn, Jack spent his formative years basking in a pixelated glow. He has been producing new media since 1994, when he found himself face to sock with the Sesame Street Muppets, and spent the next 12 years working on a variety of interactive kids projects.
In 2006, he emigrated from NYC to London, and now may have the distinction of being the only American to actually enjoy Marmite, thus easing his transition from The Big Apple to The Big Smoke. In his alternate reality existence, he travels extensively, noodles on the guitar, dives with sharks, and occasionally undertakes ridiculously long cycle rides.
His favourite word is homunculus, and he vows never to ride an ostrich again.
Ben Geliher Production Assistant
Hired to meet the Government’s new requirements on the amount of people named Ben employed by a company, Ben has come from a mixed background.
A degree in Film and Visual arts, stints testing PC and Mobile phone games, a brief foray into recruitment and a memorable performance as a body double in Battlestar Galactica have all perfectly prepared him for working at Mind Candy.
Ryan Conway Network Sysadmin
Originally from way up north, Ryan graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a degree in Computing (Networks), which is now being put to good use at Mind Candy.
A fan of all things technological, Ryan likes to spend his time playing around with new gadgets and gizmos, tinkering with Apple software development kits, and finding time to explore an interest in photography; though he doesn’t let his job distract him from his ultimate ambition of getting Macs ruling the world!
Ben Hughes Senior Sysadmin
Mind Candy’s resident grumpy sysadmin earned his bones in the computer security, online gaming and ISP industries, before braving deepest darkest south London to work for Mind Candy.
When not politely arguing with computers he’s been know to run, cycle, jump, board or more often than not, just fall around London in various ill-advised sports.
Hired in the hope of getting the whole set of Bens thus being able to put hotels on them and then charge more in Web 2.0 Monopoly.
Ben Burry Senior Developer
After a very brief stint as a graphics programmer (he feels that those 2 weeks more than justify the year
spent studying the ‘Image and Multimedia Systems’ elective part of his degree), Ben has been working with various aspects of the publishing industry for the last 8 years.
Most evenings you can find Ben rocking out, rolling with a Katamari, defending the PS3 and definitely not being addicted to WoW.
Sean Parsons Senior Developer
After having helped to build several financial systems, Sean realised that the only natural progression from there was to get involved with furry monsters.
Hailing from down South, he decided to spend a couple of months being particularly cruel to himself by commuting up to the land of his ancestors, before making the big move.
When not trying to figure out how to make distributed applications better, he can mostly be found in his native habitat of the area in front of a game console.
Jonny Reeves Developer
Setting his sights firmly on the goal of being a world renowned audio engineer, Jonny started off well with a Degree in Audio Engineering from the ACM in Guildford and after 6 months of scrounging off his parents and purchasing synths and mixers on finance he realised that it was high time he got a job.
Over the next three years he found himself slowly drifting toward the role of Web Developer and before he knew what had happened he had swapped his JP8000 for a Microsoft Ergo 4000.
Cat Burton Junior Developer
Having spent a while working as a developer in the financial industry, Cat decided it was time to work on a project she was actually a fan of, and so ended up at Mind Candy!
Not your typical girly-girl, her free time is spent coding and gaming. You can usually find her at home in the evening dedicating far too many hours to the likes of Elder Scrolls, Tomb Raider, and Civilization IV (plus many, many others)!
When not being geeky, Cat also enjoys (attempting) windsurfing and skiing. She also enjoys photography and holidays to places such as Kenya.
Ben Palczynski Animator
Ben got his job at Mind Candy partly due to the fact that you’re statistically more likely to get a job here if your name is either Ben or Steve. His dream job would be to animate monsters, which is a good thing too since that’s what his job here is!
An avid believer of imaginary friends, he believes that they say a lot about the person that create them. His imaginary friend is called Teacosy, who is constantly nagging Ben to animate him in his own online cartoons, which has lead to frustration on Teako’s part since Ben is being kept busy at work.
Ben’s cartoon characters advocate the re-use of plastic bags and are pro smoking ban. Don’t worry, he recycles his characters after he’s finished with them, every pixel counts ;)
Trevor White Illustrator
Originally from Northern Ireland, Trevor left home to study Graphic Design New Media in sunny Epsom before moving to London to work freelance as an illustrator. Along the way he has had to use other skills to pay the bills, and has worked as a video editor, after effects animator, and garden gnome painter (the feral cannibalistic variety of course).
Trevor enjoys drawing all manner or wackiness, some of which is actually work related. Working as an illustrator in the games industry is something Trevor has always wanted to do and thinks it’s awesome Mind Candy hired him!
When not drawing Trevor is probably taking it easy reading sci-fi and comics, looking at arty type stuff, playing video games, or riding his bike.
Axel Gutschenreiter Interactive Designer
Axel graduated 2001 from Central St. Martins with a BA (Hons) in communication design and quickly got sucked into the digital realm of creating awsome interactive games and online activities in flash and html.
After 4 years of creating fun and engaging experiences for clients like Channel 4 and the BBC he got jumped by a cute furry monster and dragged into the Mind Candy office, where he now works tirelessly at making Moshi Monsters mo’ monstroliscious!
When not strolling through the digital fabric of Monstro Island, Axel likes to watch Japanese robot movies, listen to old vinyl records and enter Max Headroom lookalike contests!
Megan Bell Community Team Leader
Megan began her online community career as a virtual moderator for a virtual and magical kingdom, ensuring the safety of virtual young people; she found it so virtually rewarding that she joined Mind Candy in February of 2008. Megan earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Warren Wilson College in the North Carolina Mountains.
Megan loves sock monkeys, snow globes, cappuccinos, vintage spectacles, and especially monsters.
Amanda Thomas Community Standards Liaison
Mandi has been working with online communities since the dinosaurs invented the first microchip. She is currently saving up her frequent flier miles for a free trip to space in 2060. In her spare time (which doesn’t quite exist) she enjoys shopping for vintage clothing, crafting anything crafty, karaokeing anywhere a microphone can be found, kissing alligators, and being a guitar hero.