Dr Jo Twist OBE

Dr Jo Twist OBE

Jo is CEO of Ukie, the trade body for UK games and interactive entertainment, making the UK the best place in the world to make, sell and play games. She is also Deputy Chair of the British Screen Forum, London Tech Ambassador, Chair of the BAFTA Games Committee and BAFTA Trustee, an Ambassador on the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board, Creative Industries Council member, and Honorary Visiting Professor at Ravensbourne University. She is a VP for games and accessibility charity SpecialEffect, Patron of Safe in Our World a mental health and games charity, as well as a Trustee for Royal Historic Palaces. Her previous roles include Channel 4 Education Commissioning Editor where she commissioned Digital Emmy-winning Battlefront II (not the game), free to play browser and iOS games and social media projects. She was also Multiplatform Commissioner for BBC Entertainment & Switch, BBC Three Multiplatform Channel Editor, and technology reporter for BBC News.  Her doctorate in the late 1990s was an ethnography exploring identity, community and difference in place based and social virtual communities.  In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to the creative industries and won the MCV Women in Games award for Outstanding Contribution. In 2019 she was named MCV Industry Hero and Devcom Hero for Leadership in the European games industry. She was also named as one of the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 Most Influential People in 2019.