European Games Developer Federation announces 2026-28 board, Hendrik Lesser re-elected as president

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Hendrik Lesser has been re-elected president of the European Games Developer Federation for the 2026-2028 term, as the organisation sets its next board and policy agenda. David Rabineau and Gediminas Tarasevicius have stepped down, while the new lineup brings together representatives from the Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Croatian, Polish, and French game industry groups.

The federation says its focus for the next two years is helping developers move further up the value chain, with a practical emphasis on funding, talent, and skills. That matters well beyond policy circles: for studios trying to scale, hire, or secure financing, EGDF’s priorities point toward the same bottlenecks most teams are already feeling across Europe.

The group also says it wants to strengthen collaboration with European studios and raise the region’s global visibility. In a more unusual goal, EGDF says it aims to become the first AI-based European trade association, which suggests the federation expects AI tooling to shape both its own operations and the wider industry conversation.

The timing lines up with EGDF and Video Games Europe’s European Video Game Industry Insights Report 2024, which puts Europe’s games sector at €24 billion in turnover, with more than 6,600 studios and over 95,000 workers. For developers, that’s a reminder that the region is large enough to matter politically, but still fragmented enough that access to capital and skilled staff remains a live issue.