Executive

Andrew Ayre, CEO, became majority shareholder of Other Ocean Interactive in June 2007. Prior, he was a co-founder, Co-President and former Executive Director of Foundation 9 Entertainment where he helped grow the company into the largest independent video game developer in North America with 11 studios and 750 employees. Andrew maintains a West Coast business presence for the PEI studio in Emeryville, California. Throughout his career, Andrew has played a key role in M&A, corporate development, business development, key relationships and strategy. Prior to Foundation 9, he co-founded and served as President of Backbone Entertainment. In 1992, he co-founded Digital Eclipse, where he served as President from January 1995 until it's merger with Backbone Entertainment in 2003. Andrew grew up in Newfoundland and has a B.A. degree in Government from Harvard University.

Management

Deirdre ("Beep") Ayre, Studio Head, has over 20 years experience working in the entertainment industry. She has developed concepts, written and produced programs, corporate videos and countless commercials for the broadcast industry. She has also worked with a number of small and medium sized businesses taking an idea, evaluating, writing plans, and establishing successful enterprises. She has extensive experience in evaluating projects for funding and investment purposes for both federal and provincial governments and the private sector. During her time with the company, Deirdre has been involved with and responsible for all aspects of studio management. She has overseen and been responsible for the successful development of projects for Xbox 360 Live Arcade and has recently begun development for licensed handheld projects and other downloadable titles. She is certified with several national communications organizations and has a degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute with a concentration in Production.

Gordon Wood, Technical Director, was educated out of the University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland, where he gained his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Games Technologies, and Virtual Environments. During his career, he has worked on games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PC, Leapfrog Didj, and the iPhone. Some of the credits Gordon can lay claim to are NARC PS2, NTRA PS2, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for XBLA, Ultimate Mortal Kombat for the Nintendo DS, Super Monkey Ball and Diner Dash for the Apple iPhone. Gordon oversees all tech and programming activities at Other Ocean’s two studios.

Mike Mika, Head of Development, has been developing games for nearly twenty years. He worked with some of the biggest licenses in the game and movie industry, managed studios and developed award winning original IP. He's run the gambit of roles, from engineer, animator, to writer. Most of his career was spent with Foundation 9, where he was Studio Head for Backbone Entertainment - running day to day operations as well as spearheading the creative and business development. He went on to launch ngmoco:) with some of the industry's top talent, and he is a prominent figure in the preservation of videogame history. He's shipped games for every platform since the original Game Boy, and still enjoys writing games in his spare time. In total, he's shipped more than 120 games during his prolific career.

Studio Blog

Meet more of our people and learn more about life at our studios in our Studio Blog!

©2007-2009 Other Ocean Interactive Ltd.