The 2016 IGDA Chicago Board of Directors elections have drawn to a close after the call for nominations.
Two nominations were cast for three open seats on the Board:
Shekhar Dhupelia
Shekhar Dhupelia is the Studio Head for Wargaming.net, for both their Chicago and Baltimore offices. Originally an engineer, Shekhar has worked in games for 15 years, getting his start at Sony back in the PlayStation 2 days, and has worked at several local companies in Engineering and Production roles including Midway, High Voltage, Studio Gigante, WMS / Scientific Games and now Wargaming for the past 3 years working with the World of Tanks team. He has previous experience volunteering for the IGDA Chicago Chapter, and is focused on both growing the Chicago game dev scene while always pushing to improve quality of life for our current and future developers.
Heather M Decker
Chicago has an amazing game development community and my goal is for our local IGDA chapter to continue organizing a variety of monthly events for students and professionals alike so we can continue to connect, learn, and grow together. In the coming term, I will ensure that our chapter embraces opportunities to collaborate with other local groups because with our powers combined we can do even more awesome things! Additionally, I’ll be encouraging more individuals from within our fantastic community to get involved through volunteering to support and drive IGDA Chicago activities. Our community is powered by the efforts of many outstanding folks who donate their time to make great things happen in and around Chicago. Since I first became involved with IGDA Chicago in 2011, we’ve done some pretty awesome things. I’m excited to see what we come up with next!
Congratulations to Shekhar and Heather, who will be appointed to the Board and will officially take office alongside Brian Eddy and Ross Hersemann on January 1st, 2017. Following the first Board meeting of the new year, one additional Board seat will be appointed.
We greatly appreciate Eric Shofe and Patrick McCarron’s contributions to the Board these past two years. Eric and Patrick will continue to serve on the board until the close of the year on December 31st, 2016.