Sega Europe vet Jurgen Post steps down as West Studios COO, Rovio's Alex Pelletier-Normand taking his place

Sega Europe is changing leadership at West Studios, with Jurgen Post stepping down as COO and Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand taking over that role. Pelletier-Normand will keep running Rovio while adding West Studios COO to his remit, which is a strong signal that Sega wants tighter coordination across the two businesses.

Post isn’t leaving Sega entirely. He’ll remain in an advisory capacity, and his regional managing director responsibilities are moving to Tatsuyuki Miyazaki, a Sega veteran with more than 20 years at the company and Sega Europe’s chief corporate officer. Sega president and COO Shuji Utsumi credited Post with helping put the business back on an upward trajectory after his return in 2024.

For developers, this matters less as a personnel headline and more as a sign of how Sega is managing its post-acquisition structure. Rovio was folded under Sega after the Japanese publisher spent €706 million on the Angry Birds maker in 2023, and the deal has already led to a $200 million impairment charge this February. Leadership consolidation usually means more pressure to align pipelines, studio priorities, and live-ops strategy across teams.

Pelletier-Normand’s background is also relevant: he’s been Rovio CEO since 2021, after joining as EVP of games in 2019, and spent 16 years at Gameloft before that. Sega is clearly betting on a mobile-first operator who understands both production and portfolio management to help extract more value from the combined studio network.