Room 8 Group appoints Juanita Draude as CEO

Room 8 Group has appointed Juanita Draude as CEO, with Anna Kozlova stepping down after leading the company for seven years. Draude comes in with more than 20 years across media, tech, and entertainment, including leadership roles at Monks, Publicis Groupe, the NBA, and NBC Universal.

For developers, the important part is less the personnel change itself and more the direction it reinforces. Draude is explicitly talking about Room 8 becoming a more integrated, technology-driven partner that can support developers and publishers across the full production lifecycle, which lines up with the company’s recent emphasis on co-development at scale.

That broader shift has already been visible in Room 8’s leadership changes earlier this year. Guillaume Carmona moved from VP of productions to VP of game development, and Yann Le Tensorer became VP of technology after two decades at Ubisoft. The company also said it will consolidate Solid Bash and Dragons Lake under the Room 8 Group name.

If you work with external art, engineering, or production teams, this is the kind of org change that can affect how a vendor communicates, scopes work, and integrates into your pipeline. A more unified structure can be good for larger co-dev deals, but it also suggests Room 8 is positioning itself as a strategic partner rather than a narrow service provider.