Amir Satvat
{{Short description|American business executive}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Amir Satvat, Game Developers Conference 2025 - 07.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Satvat at the Game Developers Conference in 2025
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1982|4|1}}
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| occupation = Business executive
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| notable_works =
| spouse = {{marriage|Jessica Leight|April 13, 2013}}
}}
Amir Satvat is an American business executive who has been a business development director at Tencent Games since 2023. He is known for his volunteer efforts in helping jobseekers and laid-off workers find positions in the video game industry.
His efforts in helping jobseekers began in November 2022 on his LinkedIn page, as a spreadsheet of video game job listings scraped from the web. This has since expanded to become a wider network of 15 job-seeking resources and support across multiple platforms. His community's efforts have helped over 3,500 people find work in the industry.
Early life
Amir Satvat was born on April 1, 1982, to Ashraf Owlia Satvat and Behzad Satvat of Avon, Connecticut. Satvat grew up in Farmington, Connecticut, where he continues to live with his family and work remotely from.{{Cite web |last=Takahashi |first=Dean |author-link=Dean Takahashi |date=2023-08-18 |title=How one man found game jobs for at least 450 people in the downturn |url=https://venturebeat.com/games/how-one-man-found-game-jobs-for-at-least-450-people-in-the-downturn-the-deanbeat/ |access-date=2024-12-16 |work=VentureBeat}} He graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in 2000 and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in finance from Boston College.{{Cite news |last= |date=2013-08-09 |editor-last=Rugen |editor-first=James S. |title=Alumni News |url=https://issuu.com/loomischaffee/docs/lc_summer_2013_full_issue_c1 |access-date=2024-12-16 |work=Loomis Chaffee |pages=57 |edition=Summer 2013 |issue=}} Satvat spent five years in graduate school to pursue three master's degrees;{{Cite web |date=2022-06-23 |title=Q&A with Amir Satvat, publishing producer for Amazon Games |url=https://www.amazongames.com/en-ca/news/articles/amir-satvat-amazon-games |access-date=2024-12-16 |work=Amazon Games}} a degree in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Business Administration in healthcare administration from the Wharton School, and a Master of Public Administration in health policy from New York University. Satvat married Jessica Ellen Leight on April 13, 2013, at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, officiated by Leight's father.
Professional career
Having aspired to work on video games since the age of four, Satvat began applying for roles in the video game industry after graduating from college. While positions were available at the time, they were mostly based on the West Coast, and Satvat was not willing to leave his family and friends in the New England area, which he has described as the "only thing that trumped games".
While continuing to seek a career in video games, Satvat spent 15 years working in other fields, including as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs, along with various business development, strategy and operations roles at Dell EMC, VMware, and Veeam. He joined Amazon Inc. in 2019 as a chief operating officer in their Amazon Web Services cloud sales center. A year later, Satvat landed his first role in the game industry, after transferring into Prime Gaming as a business development lead. He later became a principal publishing producer with Amazon Games' Montreal studio.{{Cite web |last=Rousseau |first=Jeffrey |date=May 9, 2024 |title=Meet Amir Satvat, the man leading efforts to find laid-off developers new jobs |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/meet-amir-satvat-the-man-leading-efforts-to-find-laid-off-developers-new-jobs |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=GamesIndustry.biz}}{{Cite web |last=Takahashi |first=Dean |author-link=Dean Takahashi |date=2024-11-05 |title=For game job seekers, the search often leads outside of gaming |url=https://venturebeat.com/games/for-game-job-seekers-the-search-often-leads-outside-of-gaming/ |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=VentureBeat}} In August 2023, he left Amazon to join Tencent Games as a business development director.{{Cite web |last=Nightingale |first=Ed |date=2024-12-18 |title=The Game Awards' first Game Changers recipient responds to "hateful" and "disturbing" comments accusing him of fraud |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/the-game-awards-first-game-changers-recipient-responds-to-hateful-and-disturbing-comments-accusing-him-of-fraud |access-date=2024-12-21 |work=Eurogamer}}
Satvat began his efforts helping others seek jobs in November 2022 after a Thanksgiving dinner, where he heard from friends who had received layoff notices just before the holiday and wanted an easier way to search for jobs. Realizing he could leverage his skills in spreadsheet macros and web scraping to help, Satvat compiled a spreadsheet containing hundreds of job listings and posted it to his LinkedIn page. To simplify the process for jobseekers, the listings are publicly accessible through a Google Sheet, where they are broken down into 20 common categories and automatically updated each month. The spreadsheet has since grown to include over 15,000 postings as of September 2024.{{Cite news |last=D'Anastasio |first=Cecilia |date=2024-09-12 |title=Data Cruncher Moonlights as Headhunter for Video-Game Workers |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-12/data-cruncher-moonlights-as-headhunter-for-video-game-workers |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=Bloomberg News}}
Satvat's efforts expanded to become Amir Satvat's Games Community, which he maintains with a group of volunteers. They now operate a wider network of 15 job-seeking resources and support across multiple platforms, which include job boards and mentorship programs.{{Cite web |last=Escribano |first=Javier |date=2024-12-13 |title=Who is Amir Satvat, first Game Changer recipient at The Game Awards |url=https://www.gamereactor.eu/who-is-amir-satvat-first-game-changer-recipient-at-the-game-awards-1467493/ |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=Gamereactor UK}}{{Cite web |last=Rousseau |first=Jeffrey |date=May 9, 2024 |title=Meet Amir Satvat, the man leading efforts to find laid-off developers new jobs |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/meet-amir-satvat-the-man-leading-efforts-to-find-laid-off-developers-new-jobs |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=GamesIndustry.biz}} His community's efforts have helped over 3,500 people find work in the video game industry.{{cite web |last=Takahashi |first=Dean |date=2024-03-21 |title=How Amir Satvat finds jobs for thousands of game industry people |url=https://venturebeat.com/games/how-amir-satvat-finds-jobs-for-thousands-of-game-industry-people-gdc-talk/ |website=VentureBeat |access-date=2025-05-07}}
Recognition
Satvat was presented with the inaugural Game Changer Award at the Game Awards 2024, a new accolade introduced to recognize individuals who have had a positive impact on the game industry.{{Cite web |last=Escribano |first=Javier |date=2024-12-13 |title=Who is Amir Satvat, first Game Changer recipient at The Game Awards |url=https://www.gamereactor.eu/who-is-amir-satvat-first-game-changer-recipient-at-the-game-awards-1467493/ |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=Gamereactor UK}}{{Cite web |title=The Game Awards 2024 present their first-ever Game Changer Award |date=December 14, 2024 |url=https://en.as.com/meristation/news/the-game-awards-2024-presented-their-first-ever-game-changers-award-in-an-incredibly-heartfelt-moment-n/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=MeriStation}} Many considered Satvat's emotional acceptance speech the highlight of the event.{{Cite web |last=Henley |first=Stacey |date=December 15, 2024 |title=Highlight of The Game Awards: Amir Satvat's Impactful Speech |url=https://www.thegamer.com/game-changer-highlight-game-awards-amir-satvat |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=TheGamer}}{{cite web |last=Colantonio |first=Giovanni |date=December 13, 2024 |title=The Game Awards finally figured out its formula |url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/game-awards-2024-wrap-up/ |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20241214074925/https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/game-awards-2024-wrap-up/ |archivedate=December 14, 2024 |accessdate=December 14, 2024 |work=Digital Trends}}{{cite web |last1=Richardson |first1=Tom |last2=Rogers |first2=Andrew |date=December 13, 2024 |title=Game Awards 2024: Astro Bot Wins Game of the Year |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rn57j1lkeo |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213113512/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rn57j1lkeo |archivedate=December 13, 2024 |accessdate=December 13, 2024 |publisher=BBC}}{{cite news |last=Park |first=Gene |date=December 13, 2024 |title=The Astro Bot win sends a message to the game industry: Focus on play |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/video-games/2024/12/13/astro-bot-game-of-the-year-game-awards/ |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213121855/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/video-games/2024/12/13/astro-bot-game-of-the-year-game-awards/ |archivedate=December 13, 2024 |accessdate=December 13, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} Some viewers suggested Satvat's role at Tencent made him "part of the problem" with layoffs and criticized the ceremony's failure to mention it.{{cite web |last=Grayson |first=Nathan |date=December 13, 2024 |title=With The Future Class On Hold, The Game Awards' Attempts At Doing Good Produce Mixed Results |url=https://aftermath.site/game-awards-2024-future-class-game-changer-geoff-keighley |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20241214045237/https://aftermath.site/game-awards-2024-future-class-game-changer-geoff-keighley |archivedate=December 14, 2024 |accessdate=December 14, 2024 |work=Aftermath}}{{cite web |last=Wilde |first=Tyler |date=December 18, 2024 |title=After being honored at The Game Awards for helping laid-off devs, Amir Satvat says he's received 'countless' hateful messages: 'This can happen to you too when you sacrifice over 2,000 hours of your time to help the industry' |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/amir-satvat-game-awards-comments/ |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20241218022608/https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/amir-satvat-game-awards-comments/ |archivedate=December 18, 2024 |accessdate=December 18, 2024 |work=PC Gamer |publisher=Future plc}} Four days after the show, Satvat said he had received "countless hateful messages", including antisemitic comments directed at his wife. He further stated that he has never laid off workers nor worked on "mergers and acquisitions at Tencent or Amazon".
In 2025, Amir Satvat's Games Community was named an official Industry and Media Partner of the Game Developers Conference, contributing 240 Expo Passes valued at over $100,000 to support jobseekers. That same year, he was announced as a keynote speaker for the External Development Summit. His community is also a featured partner in the Gamescom Cares program, which recognized it as the largest grassroots career support initiative in the video game industry. Satvat has been named a LinkedIn Top Voice in Video Games, a distinction awarded to members whose content generates sustained engagement and community impact.
References
{{Reflist|refs=
|{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amirsatvat_i-wanted-to-send-a-very-quick-note-of-thanks-activity-7176734650659143680-O8YM/ |title=I wanted to send a very quick note of thanks to every friend and colleague who either tagged me or wrote to me, expressing that I was missed at GDC |last=Satvat |first=Amir |publisher=LinkedIn |date=March 2024 |accessdate=March 25, 2025 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250325002614/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amirsatvat_i-wanted-to-send-a-very-quick-note-of-thanks-activity-7176734650659143680-O8YM/ |archivedate=March 25, 2025 |url-status=live |quote=my birthday is on April 1st }}
|{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amirsatvat_the-shadow-of-history-from-my-year-of-birth-activity-7300998111022194688-qQit/ |title=The Shadow of History from My Year of Birth: 1982 |last=Satvat |first=Amir |publisher=LinkedIn |date=March 2025 |accessdate=March 25, 2025 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250325002547/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amirsatvat_the-shadow-of-history-from-my-year-of-birth-activity-7300998111022194688-qQit/ |archivedate=March 25, 2025 |url-status=live }}
}}
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Category:Amazon (company) people
Category:American Internet celebrities
Category:American people in the video game industry
Category:American technology executives
Category:Boston College alumni
Category:The Game Awards winners
Category:Loomis Chaffee School alumni
Category:New York University alumni
Category:People from Farmington, Connecticut
Category:University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences alumni