Russell Ovans

Russell Ovans, Ph.D., is a Director at East Side Games Group, developers of hit mobile games such as "The Office: Somehow We Manage" and "Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money." He is a computer scientist and has worked as both a software engineering professor and programmer since Rick Astley ruled the dance floor. In 2007, he founded Backstage Technologies, a social game studio that pioneered the monetization of free-to-play games on Facebook. Best known for its "Family Feud" app, Backstage was acquired by RealNetworks in 2010, after which Russ returned to teaching college, worked as an executive-in-residence at a tech incubator, and opened a brewery. He returned to the games industry in 2018 to lead analytics, growth, and ad monetization at East Side Games, a tenure during which the company quadrupled revenue and went public.