the team

meet the founders...

Gary Denham

Gary Denham started in the entertainment industry with Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) and his business marketing entity “Fleetwood Marketing”.  Moving on from there, Denham produced feature films (including “Soccermom” with Hannah Montana’s Emily Osment and Missy Pyle) before moving into Real Estate services in the aftermath of the 2008 foreclosure crisis to help homeowners fight back against the banks.  Denham has worked the past 8 years in the video game industry as both a designer as well as a consultant.

Paul Bolotin

Paul Bolotin was a former fortune 500 CEO who ran MCRB (a division of Dart Industries) from 1980 to 1990. After MCRB, Paul formed Syncmasters which provided music for The Oprah Winfrey Show, the award winning Dr. Oz Show, March of The Penguins (Morgan Freeman), Four Christmases (Reese Witherspoon) and much much more. Paul launched Wamba Technologies alongside of Gary Denham and his contribution of experience and wisdom to the company will ripple through the people who work here for the lifetime of the company.

meet the team...

Jonanthan Todd

Jonathan has extensive and broad experience in the management of artist and celebrity careers inclusive of marketing, branding and licensing. He is a Grammy Nominated producer and a Concert Promoter. He currently manages diverse artist and celebrity portfolios ranging from rock icon Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac (co-manager of Mick Fleetwood Blues Band and Mick Fleetwood Island Rumors Band) to celebrities as diverse as Marla Maples (Trump) to Chef Scott Leibfried (Hell’s Kitchen – FOX). Jonathan’s Specialties include, marketing planning for new products, new ventures, celebrities, legal and contract negotiations, branding, licensing, artist management, project management, branding and co-branding, public relations, & advertising.

Joe Bagdon

Joe grew up under the sunny skies of Southern California prior to entering the Air Force. In the Air Force, Joe was in the Intelligence Community performing Collection, Network Defense, and Network Attack. Since exiting the military, Joe has worked in a variety of companies ranging from startups to fortune 100’s. Joe brings a very wide breadth of capabilities with roughly thirty years in Information Security, Information Technology, and Information Warfare. He has always been very technical in nature, even when filling the roles of Security Officer (Rally Software, Boulder, CO) as well as several interim CISO positions for several Startups and small to mid-sized businesses. Joe currently resides in Dallas, TX with his wife and three kids.

Andy Ashcraft

Andy Ashcraft is a veteran, multi-decade Video Game Developer and has developed games for Activision, Disney, Sega, and more. Andy is most well known for his work on God Of War 2, the hit best selling game. Andy’s work has generated into the billions of dollars in revenue and his track record speaks for itself.

Brian Upton

Brian Upton is an award-winning game designer based in Los Angeles, California. A 20-year veteran of the game industry, he was one of the founders of Red Storm Entertainment where he was the lead designer of both Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. For 14 years he was a senior game designer at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio, where he collaborated with external teams on titles such as Fat Princess, Warhawk, Sorcery, Everybody Has Gone to the Rapture, Bound and Here They Lie.

He has served on the advisory boards of the game design programs at UC Santa Cruz, NYU, and University of Limerick. He is a regular speaker at conferences such as GDC, Games For Change, and Digital Dragons. He is also the author of The Aesthetic of Play (MIT Press 2015), a book about game design and meaning-making. And he contributed a chapter on horror game design to Level Design: Processes and Experiences (CRC Press 2016).

Pavel Ivanov

Pavel’s career began in Portland, Oregon at Tektronix in 1981 as a software engineer building electrical CAD tools. He graduated from Portland State University in 1985 with a BS in Computer Science. In 1986 he became a developer on a network data base used to manage electrical designs for ComputerVision’s schematic capture and simulation applications. In 1992 he moved to Phoenix to build a Multi-Chip Module (MCM) design capability within Motorola’s Semiconductor Labs. In 1998 he moved within Motorola to design and develop one of four key elements required to automate mask prep capability for integrating semiconductor designs into fabs within Motorola. In 2009, Pavel joined a small start-up in the Phoenix area to build data base interfaces for a new semiconductor design system. In 2010, he joined PayPal where he is currently performing project management and operations roles focused on improving product quality of the Payments stack. In 2018, Pavel began working with Wamba Technologies as a project manager for Gamers Oasis, their e-sports tournament platform. Pavel continues to live in Gilbert, Arizona with his wife, JulieAnn, of 28 years. His 5 children are on their own and he has 4 granddaughters with whom he enjoys playing and interacting.

Jody Whitfill

Jody, an Arizona native, received his Bachelors of Science in Information Technology with a core competency in Business Systems Analysis from the University of Phoenix. With over 25 years development and consulting experience as lead developer for various types of software including websites, medical devices, and more, his experience includes writing code for compliance with regulations in the medical industry while dealing with security, database development, team management and data control for companies with more than $100M in annual revenue. When his brain needs recharging he enjoys bowling, golfing, skiing and first-person shooter video games in his spare time, continuously living by the motto, “I don’t lose to computers!”

Paul Mayer

More than 25 years of experience in architecture, product development and launch, and team mentoring and building. Experienced in reducing costs and on-time delivery of products including experience with start-up and turn around environments. Accomplished architect in the areas of Client Server (n-Tier), Desktop, Services, Cloud and Mobility.  Successful at improving productivity and customer satisfaction while reducing overall operational costs. Hands on working manager.

Specialties: Architecture, Application Development, Systems Integration, Real time data, BPM, Cloud, IoT, and Enterprise Solutions.

 

Will Steele

With a degree in Physics, William has founded several post production and live production technology startups including WheresMyMedia and the Emmy Award winning Pronology.  William most recently won an NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Pilot Innovation Challenge Award for developing a prototype to bring immersive content such as 360 video and Virtual Reality to broadcast television.  “As a child before video went digital, I would sit and watch my grandmother edit videos for ABC news in Albany, NY.  I’ve been fascinated with facilitating creative workflows for live and post production by building innovative technologies ever since”, Says William Steele.  William will use his expertise programming best in class video production and streaming software to help build an innovative platform for WAMBA.

Tom Long

A proven game developer with expertise in optimization and efficiency of game design, code, and pipelines. An engaging, cross-disciplinary lead with international award-winning recognition. Credentials include Unity for 2D/3D mobile games; Virtual Reality training; success in shipping multiple mobile, free-to-play, console, and AAA computer game titles; international strategic full stack game design integration; and co-authored “100 Principles of Game Design”.

Marty Carr

Marty Carr, a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan is a game enthusiast who became passionate about learning to code his own games, especially in the fantasy role playing genre. A self-taught coder, Marty enjoys focusing on 3D development and computer artificial intelligence. Having worked for a number of studios over the past couple years, Marty is a welcome addition to the Wamba Team. In his spare time, Marty enjoys all aspects of personal fitness, video games and expanding his arsenal of coding weapons.

Justin Yong

Justin is a Purdue University graduate with a BS in Computer Graphics Technology. He is a 3D Animator / Technical Artist with skills ranging from game development to video production. Justin breathes life into the characters of Waffle Smash: Chicken & Waffles as seen in the mobile game and other media. He also aids in the technical development of the mobile game.

Jesus Perez

Jesus is a seasoned computer programmer analyst, holding a degree with honors from the esteemed Chilean Catholic institution, DUOC UC. With over a decade of experience, he is a specialist in gameplay programming, demonstrating expertise across various projects encompassing both individual and collaborative efforts with teams around the world. His portfolio boasts contributions to award-winning games featured on prominent platforms such as Kongregate, NewGrounds, itch.io and mobile platforms such as GooglePlay and AppleStore. A fervent enthusiast of gaming in all its forms. In his free time he enjoys Magic The Gathering, role playing games and sharpening his skills in shooters.

Kyle Cuss

Kyle Cuss, a self-taught game programmer from Northern Ontario, Canada. He has a deep passion for creating immersive gaming experiences that are engaging, challenging, and, most importantly, fun. His journey into game development began young with a fascination with gameplay mechanics, UI design, and UX. He thrives on pushing boundaries and bringing ideas to life through code. He is proficient with Unity and Unreal Engines. He enjoys improving his gameplay programming skills in his spare time with personal projects focusing on diverse game mechanics.

Roger Kaffer

Roger Kaffer, a distinguished technical artist and graphics programmer, blends indie spirit with industry expertise. With a rich background spanning over a decade, Roger has achieved a remarkable 4.4/5 star average in the mobile gaming market and a 92% PC game rating for his self-published works, which have accumulated nearly 100k installs worldwide. His proficiency across Steam, Android, and Virtual Reality demonstrates his adaptability and interest in diverse technologies. Passionate about the art and science of game development, Roger continually pushes the boundaries in both the indie and industry game development spaces. Beyond his professional milestones, Roger’s dedication to fitness mirrors the discipline and energy he invests in game development, both in his career and personal projects, positioning him as a versatile asset in any game development context.

Kamrie Iseman

Kamrie graduated from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona with a BA in Digital Design with an emphasis on Web Design. She joined the Wamba team during her final year at GCU and quickly made a name for herself.  Kamrie is responsible for the graphic and functional design of all the Wamba related websites including WambaWorld.com and WaffleSmash.com as well as the graphic redesign of the company’s mobile game, Waffle Smash: Chicken & Waffles.

Coy Matthews

Coy has been working as an illustrator and graphic designer for more than 30 years.  Having worked in the field extensively with Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more, Coy specializes in bringing art to life digitally. To have a guy like Coy on the team is to have a truly lucky team. Just don’t leave a pencil lying on the floor. He might trip over it and break an ankle!

Kaz Foxsen

Kaz, a Fall River, MA native, graduated Summa Cum Laude from UMass Dartmouth with a of Fine Arts degree in Illustration. She is well-versed in creating images for products, pet portraits, and drawing characters (and other assets) for use in Indie games and animation. One of the highlights of her career was working on the Ghoul Town and companion Deadpan, in the fan-made “Beyond Boulder Dome” mod for the game “Fallout: New Vegas” where she did “a little bit of everything”, including concept art, textures, simple 3D models, voice acting, writing, and programming. In her spare time, Kaz runs an Etsy shop focusing on pet-themed digital art for print-on-demand products as well as creating animal art on tees, phone cases, and various gifts on Zazzle and TeePublic. She also meets regularly with the crew of “Movie Theater Time Machine” podcast (part of the local 40/41 Media network) to review and joke about movies.

Nick Dobkin

Nicholas Dobkin is an award-winning animator and filmmaker with a passion for concept art and video games. He received a BA in Film Production from the prestigious USC Film School, and his animated thesis film, Pandora’s Wake, was featured at San Diego Comic Con’s International Film Festival in 2015. He directed and produced the feature film Touching Sound, a documentary about the first touchscreen arcade game, which screened at GDC, and his connection to games has only grown since. After serving as art director at educational app company Class Dojo, he joined Wamba to dive deeper into game design and is responsible for many of the environments and furnishings in Waffle Smash.

Filiberto J. Mendoza

Filiberto, the visionary artisan hailing from the golden state of California, embodies the convergence of imagination and technology, sculpting breathtaking visual experiences that transcend the confines of reality. Guided by artistic intuition and fueled by an insatiable hunger for innovation, he harmonizes every visual element with the latest advancements in 3D development, including cutting-edge AI technologies, spanning from the pulsating landscapes of gaming and animation to the immersive frontiers of virtual and augmented reality pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape of digital artistry.

meet the legal team...

Jason Webb

Jason Webb began his practice by managing and writing patents for the very accomplished Michael Starkweather, a renowned patent attorney. Mr. Starkweather is most known for filing a patent for the download of music which was reportedly sold to Apple for $500M. Mr. Webb routinely negotiates licensing/product placement deals and conducts settlements between his clients and Fortune companies such as QVC, Home Depot, Toys R’ Us, and more. Mr. Webb is also a civilian partner with the FBI in protection of critical information systems. Mr. Webb will work diligently to seek the approval of this patent application, and then, once approved, to negotiate the sale or licensing of the patent.

 

Darin Mangum

Darin Mangum specializes in putting together the investment agreements, corporate contracts, employee contracts, and oversees the structuring of corporations big and small.  Having worked for the SEC throughout law school, Mangum is an expert in keeping our I’s dotted and our T’s crossed.

Matthew Mousley

Duane Morris Firm

Duane Morris is one of the nations top law firms specializing in gaming and gambling.  Based out of Massachusetts, our counsel there is Matthew.

Nate Hill

Jackson White Firm

Nate Hill specializes in employment law and will oversee the development of our HR department. Jackson White is native to the Phoenix area where we are located.

Philip Wang

Based out of Hong Kong, Philip is our litigation consultant.  Philip is an attorney with a tremendous amount of experience in patent litigation.  His job is to source resources and law firms for us when the time comes to defend our patent in court.

Opportunities

Do you have games on the market and are looking for additional ways to monetize them? Our eSports platform is looking for new devs to partner with. Inquire today! Send us an email at [email protected]