About NaturalMotion
NaturalMotion is a leading game technology and development company based in Oxford (England) and San Francisco (California). The company’s award-winning euphoria engine is a break-through in real-time character animation and is used in AAA titles such as Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, and LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
NaturalMotion’s other run-time animation product, morpheme, is the industry’s first graphically authorable animation engine. Customers include Ubisoft, Activision, Bioware, Eidos, THQ, Codemasters, Ninja Theory, Disney and many others.
In addition to its technology business, NaturalMotion’s games studio (NaturalMotion Games) is developing highly differentiated next-gen console and iPhone games, such as Backbreaker for Xbox 360 and PS3, the first football game to feature truly interactive and on-the-field game play. The iPhone version of the game has become one of the most successful sports games on the device, with 3 million downloads and counting.
Management Team
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Michael Penington (Chairman) Michael Penington is a private investor in a number of technology companies. He started his career at Morgan Stanley, where he worked for 16 years as an Investment Banker in London. He has since been a private investor, and since 2008 has been a partner in a venture capital fund based in Oxford. He has a BSc from the University of Melbourne and a DPhil from Oxford University. |
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Torsten Reil (CEO and co-founder) Torsten Reil is co-founder and CEO of NaturalMotion. He holds a BA in Biology from Oxford University and an MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems from Sussex University. Prior to founding NaturalMotion, Torsten was researching for a PhD in Complex Systems at Oxford University’s Zoology department, from which he spun off NaturalMotion. Torsten has been named amongst MIT’s TR100 global top innovators, Next-Gen’s 25 People in the Games Industry, and Develop magazine’s 25 Game Changers. |
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Adam Whittaker (COO) Adam graduated with an MEng in Engineering & Materials Science from Oxford University. Prior to joining NaturalMotion, Adam worked for Detica as a business consultant specialising in the management and implementation of large business & technical change programmes. Particular achievements include redesiging finance and strategy management processes, benefits measurement, organisational change and architecting the supporting IT infrastructure for blue-chip clients.
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Simon Mack (CTO) Simon Mack is the CTO of NaturalMotion. After completing his Masters in Engineering at Oxford University, Simon worked at MathEngine Plc developing the Karma physics engine before joining NaturalMotion in 2003 as a developer. |
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Christian Staack (VP Worldwide Sales) Christian joined NaturalMotion from REALVIZ, the visual effects software company, where he was the Director of Sales for the Americas. During his five year tenure at REALVIZ, Christian oversaw a move from indirect to direct sales, resulting in a substantial increase in revenue while working closely together with VFX and games companies. He was additionally responsible for business development and strategic partnerships in the US. Prior to REALVIZ he held various sales and business development positions in the service industry. Christian has a BS in hospitality management and economics from Heidelberg. |
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Kevin Allington (VP Production) Kevin is a PMP and CSM certified project manager and joined NaturalMotion with extensive experience managing large scale global IT projects for companies including The World Bank, The British Standards Institute (BSI), Operation for Economic Co Development (OECD) and Sony. Originally from an artistic background, graduating from Film School specialising as a Cinematographer and Producer, Kevin has a strong passion for the VFX, Animation and Games industry. In addition to being responsible for establishing and running the Production team at NaturalMotion Kevin is also the active Senior Producer across the company's wide portfolio of projects. |
