Who We Are

Sam is the President here at Hyper Hippo Productions and his key focus is to support our business by bringing together amazing talent and encouraging creativity. Prior to working with our organization, Sam worked as an Executive in Residence (EiR) at Accelerate Okanagan and a long, long time ago, he earned his MBA at Ivey School of Business – in other words, he knows his stuff, is passionate about tech and is constantly diving deep to learn more about the industry so that he can better guide our teams in creating successful games.

Fun Fact, Sam doesn’t like bananas…like, at all. Ask him why sometime; it’s a pretty intriguing story. Aside from his distaste for bananas, Sam LIKES to play sports and enjoys music of all sorts, and his favourite activity is anything he can do with his family.

Lance (or RocketSnail as many know him to be) is our lead hippo, mountain man and the visionary behind our organization. Lance has been developing online worlds since he was a child, creating his first virtual world in 2000 called Penguin Chat and later co-founding and creating Club Penguin in 2005. In Lance’s spare time, he likes to work or as he would likely phrase it, “pursue his passions!”

This guy is known for “working” from some pretty unique locations, with a few of the most interesting being the mountains, ski hills and even during his daily biking adventures. He creates ALWAYS and loves that he gets to be a part of an organization that connects people around the world through fun!

Jennifer is our Chief of Business Operations and ‘in-house’ pie maker. In addition to her stellar culinary skills, Jennifer’s day to day involves leading our HR, Accounting, Studio/Facilities & Legal divisions, otherwise known as Team Services. Jen is a fearless leader not just for our team, but for our entire company, encouraging growth within our organization, bringing shiny new ideas and encouraging her team to colour outside the lines.

Originally from PEI, Jennifer loves anything to do with the outdoors, hiking and biking… not to mention her mad softball skills. Being an avid traveller and adventurer gives Jen a unique perspective to how she leads, allowing those that work alongside her, a chance to share in the daily adventures at the Hyper Hippo studio.

Michelle is our HR People & Culture Leader. Her top priority is to support our dynamic, thriving and growing organization in its mission to be one of the BEST places to work!

She leads and develops all things HR related. Currently building and designing cool programs and tools that facilitate and support the growth of our employees and business. She is very passionate about employee and leadership development and making sure we grow our MANY TALENTS and leverage our STRENGTHS.

When she is not onboarding our new talent, she shares with us all the great perks that make up our unique culture and is always looking for more ways for us to have FUN!

She LOVES networking and connecting people to people.  She gets pretty creative with getting the word out about who we are.  She has her ice skates, runners and dog treats in her office, ready!

When she is not at work, she is having FUN outdoors, skiing or hiking with her dog Gunner, family and friends.  She only tried snowboarding and processing payroll once! She will tell you she is a very ENGAGED and a PROUD smiling HIPPO that “won the jackpot” and is so grateful to work here and be a part of our amazing team!

Lesley oversees the day to day operations of Hyper Hippo’s facilities. Ensuring that the office is running smoothly and looking its best is something that Lesley excels at and takes major pride in. We’ve termed her our “office ninja” because she also works to support & facilitate the various studios and teams with administrative tasks. If you were to ask her what one of her favourite aspects of her job would be, she’d say, “I only get to pick one?”

When not hanging out at the Hyper Hippo headquarters, Lesley is usually sitting on her deck reading a book, riding her bike or sipping a London Fog at Starbucks.

Allison is our Finance & Accounting Manager and if you aren’t really sure what that means, then simply put, she rocks the numbers. Allison oversees financial reporting, budgeting, cash flows, taxes and much more for all of Hyper Hippo Productions
studios.

When she’s not being an accounting mastermind, Allison likes to spend time collecting calculators, labelling everything in her reach with her trusty label maker and hanging out with her golden retriever, Honey.

Ask Allison why she loves working for Hyper Hippo and she’ll say she loves how our culture embraces creativity & collaboration – every week is a different challenge and an opportunity to learn something new!

Jason is our accounting rockstar! This guy keeps everyone happy by seeing that they get paid. Sure, he may always be surrounded by mountains of paperwork, but for a guy that scaled the Schilthorn in the Swiss Alps in a pair of $15 sneakers (what?!), he is more than up to the challenge. Jason is a major asset to the team here at Hyper Hippo, working to ensure our studios & publisher are supported through financial reporting.

If that isn’t enough, he further supports his team & those around him through his knowledge. He currently holds a management degree, accounting certificate and is very soon going to hold his CPA designation. What’s next, Jason, a doctorate? Stay tuned to find out…