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 Chief Technical Officer
After taking a break from building large realtime systems for blue chip and media companies, Toby spent 3 months traveling from Russia to Bali (almost) overland before washing up on Mind Candy’s shores looking for something exciting to get stuck into.
Toby’s technological passions revolve around agile development, large-scale distributed systems and data visualisation and design.
When he isn’t working on managing and growing our systems, teams and processes, Toby likes to spend his time snowboarding and scuba-diving when the weather permits, and behind his cameras and guitars when it doesn’t.
Ed Relf Chief Marketing Officer
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.
Rebecca Newton Chief Community & Safety Officer
Rebecca has been involved in the online world since the 80s and the offline world since Elvis wore the 3-cornered pants. She spent her formative community management years (the 90s) at AOL Inc., where she held many positions, finally landing as the Program Manager for AOL’s Community Leader Program. After 6 years at Sulake managing moderators, online safety and community for 24 Habbo Hotels world-wide, Rebecca joined Mind Candy in 2007.
Rebecca speaks on community, kids and online safety regularly, is a member of the Safe Internet Alliance and in her spare time plays “cut throat” bridge, writes music for plays, performs in several bands and is the Chairperson for GirlsRockNC.org, a non-profit agency that teaches girls 7-17 self-confidence and empowerment through rock music performance.
Andy Matjaszek Global Product Marketing Manager
Andy has spent the last two years in the world of online gaming in Southam Warwickshire. He has worked on MMORPG such as Jumpgate Evolution and The Lord of the Rings Online and felt it was the perfect time to leave and experience the ever expanding world of Moshi Monsters.
Passionate about Marketing and the opportunity to launch a brand on a global scale, Andy can’t wait to experience all that Monstro City has to offer, including working with the highly creative team here at Mind Candy.
Always playing sport, Andy does all he can to watch / listen and generally breath Manchester United. He also believes he has a great sense of humour (though no one ever laughs at his jokes), loves travelling and watching films.
Bekah Barnwell HR Manager
Originally starting out with a degree in Management and Business Administration, Bekah took her first job in HR with a large finance company. Then after earning her HR stripes she moved to Jagex Games Studios (Think RuneScape) where she discovered her passion for all things creative. After working her way up to HR Manager and helping Jagex achieve great success she moved to the completely different world of railways. Although a surprising move, it allowed Bekah to get experience in one of the most demanding HR environments around.
However, as a big kid at heart, it did not take long for the world of gaming to start calling her back and when an opportunity with Mind Candy came up she grabbed it with both hands.
Bekah has a giant house rabbit called Pickle, loves anything that comes in the colour pink and dreams of one day owning her very own shoe closet (largely to store her shoes away from Pickle who likes to eat them).
Emma Smith Bookkeeper, Office Manager & PA
After spending four 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 avid gamer like most 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.
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 IT Operations Lead
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 Network Operations Lead
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 Software Engineering Lead
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.
Cat Burton Front-End 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.
Gavinder Chaudri Test Engineer
It all started with playing too much Command & Conquer and the need to make things run better. By fiddling with bits in his computer, his love for applied science was born.
Fast forward 10 years and Gav was earning his masters, playing with webcams, teaching them how to track moving objects. Gav spent the next 3 years testing web applications before coming full circle. He now helps to test games for a living at Mind Candy.
In his spare time, Gav likes to grow trees. His dream is to have a greenhouse or 3 and grow his own fruit.
Martyn Jones Flash / ActionScript Developer
Having spent 4 years developing websites for the Discovery Channel, casual games for the BBC, experimental animation for Hewlett-Packard Labs and gambling games for the National Lottery, Martyn felt it was time to act out the Last Samurai as he immersed himself in discipline and culture whilst living in a Japanese rice farming village for three years.
After enduring earthquakes, typhoons and an array of deadly insects whilst living at the base of the world’s most active volcano, Martyn sought refuge in Singapore where he designed and developed applications for the government’s Future Schools project.
Now safely back in the UK, he can often be found clinging to his DSLR, or shaking his limbs uncontrollably at the nearest salsa venue.
Kevin Lloyd Software Engineer
Fuelled by a potent mixture of caffeine and cynicism, Kevin has spent most of his career building systems that make sure people get paid. A proud member of Mind Candy’s ever growing “I studied on the south coast” party (of which, he is assured, there ain’t no party like), he believes knowledge is a journey and never stops learning. His favourite books include Orwell’s 1984 and Sun Tzu’s The Art Of Parenting.
When not writing software for a living, Kevin can be found taking in the delights of the Zamaretto Premier League, trying to squeeze in some quality time with his PS3 or training up his daughter to become a famous rockstar/scientist/rockstar-scientist.
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!
Richard Mitchelson Animator
Originally from Yorkshire, Richard studied Animation at university in Farnham and once set free into the wider world, made tracks to the big smoke to see if the streets really were paved with gold.
Finding this to be not true (unfortunately the paving in London is made of old pigeons), Richard started working on various projects for different studios and clients such as the BBC, Toyota, Nokia and cycling journal Rouleur.
Now working for Mind Candy Richard loves the fact he is animating some really great characters everyday and that huge amounts of people see his work on a daily basis. When Richard is not bringing the population of Monstro City to life he enjoys his other obsession in life – cycling, and can often be found riding, training and racing in the lanes of sussex.
Megan Bell Community Editor
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.
Greg Little Assistant Community Manager, Customer Service Team
Greg began his online community career as a Community Assistant for Mind Candy in October 2008 and eventually joined the Mind Candy staff full-time in February 2010. Greg received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina USA in 2008.
When not staring at a monitor, Greg can be found drinking espresso, collecting books he will never read, and trying new techniques to keep his cat off the countertop.
Amanda Thomas Assistant Community Manager, Parent & Conduct Team
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.
Emma Munro Smith Community Support
Emma is the newest member of the community support team. After graduating from The University of East Anglia in 2008 with a BA in Film and American Studies, she worked for Club Penguin in Brighton as a player support rep before moving to London (via 3 months in South America).
She spent this winter in the customer service department at Firebox performing snowy Christmas miracles and subsequently found her way to Mind Candy for the new year.
Emma loves kids media and has a passion for board games and charity shops, preferably combined! She once owned a 1996 version of Can’t Cook Won’t Cook the board game which she bought for just 50p and is the proud creator and host of board game inspired drunktionary Saturday and brunchtionary Sunday.
Greg Sheriff Assistant Community Manager, Tech Dept.
Remember that kid at the Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition (the one where you can be Vega) who basically stood there and beat an entire line of people trailing over to the StarWars console? Yeah, that kid beat Greg Sheriff too – and he realized he may have to seek his fortune outside the realm of competitive gaming.
Being too lazy to design video games, he wound up playing guitar in a jazz fusion band instead. Fast forward ten years and here he is at Moshi, proud to be involved in a game his own children love, and are way more impressed with than his epic psychedelic jams of yore. Greg is the Tech Team-Leader on the Community Team by day and wannabe fusion master by night.
Megan Whisenant Assistant Community Manager
Mags began with online communities before chat had pictures. After bouncing around pixelated playlands throughout the emergence of virtual worlds, Mags plonked herself down at Mind Candy and refused to leave until given a job.
When not eyeball deep in email, she enjoys cooking, stuffed toys and herding cats in her living room. She has a deep love of Apple products, and a deep fear of dolls. Monsters are the sworn enemy of dolls apparently (who knew?!), so Mags feels confidently safe away from what she calls the “dollpocalypse”.