Board

Darren is the founding president of Esports Australia. A passionate advocate for esports and for driving the recognition and respect of esports, he saw the need to support the sector’s growth and introduce good governance. He has been a gamer since his youth, competing in his first competition at 13 years of age, and leads Esports Australia with over 16 years of esports experience spanning competition, advocacy, leadership, development, planning, execution and events — including presenting the emergence of esports at a TEDx event in 2010, and involvement with Team Immunity, CyberGamer, GotGames, World Cyber Games and a number of other esports organisations.

Darren was the driving force behind Australian membership of the International Esports Federation and the Global Esports Federation, and Australian participation in the Commonwealth Esports Championships. He holds broad connections across the esports community, with relationships spanning the globe.

Emma Witkowski is a Senior Lecturer in the Game Design program at RMIT University. She is a qualitative sociological scholar of games and media cultures, focused on the professionalisation of esports, networked team practice, gender, star-power and mega-events, and has published widely on networked careers in esports.

Her public esports scholarship includes research projects with Essendon Football Club (esports professionalisation), the South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People (esports in secondary education), IBM (young women and game cultures), and the City of Port Phillip (sustainable game development practices). Her research within game cultures began in 2005 with The LetzPlay Initiative, a Danish government and industry funded project using computer game play to empower young women toward STEM familiarity and broader digital leisure opportunities.

Wei-Shen is a highly experienced lawyer and business professional with over 15 years of expertise in strategic advice, media rights management, licensing and distribution, and the commercialisation of sports media content and assets across free-to-air, pay TV, OTT and digital platforms.

He operates his own consultancy while employed as corporate counsel with an international sports broadcaster. In addition to being a co-founder and director of medical device start-up SWADE Medtech, Wei-Shen holds a keen interest in establishing the governance, development and commercialisation of esports.

He holds an LLB and BCom from the University of Melbourne, has completed the Company Directors Course (GAICD) with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Garth Midgley is Managing Director at GOATi Entertainment, developers of the esports-focused RTS-racing title 22 Racing Series, and of their proprietary engine RevGen, which is also used on VR driver training and traffic microsimulation projects.

He has worked in the games industry for over 20 years with more than 20 shipped titles to his credit, previously working on IPs including Star Wars, Transformers, LA Noire, Darksiders, Far Cry, Test Drive Unlimited and Zelda.

Steve has worked in sport for more than 30 years, with experience spanning the Olympic and Paralympic movements, major events and international governance.

He is Chairman of Wheelchair Rugby Australia, a Non-Executive Director of World Wheelchair Rugby, and an Executive Board Member of the Association of Paralympic Sports Organisations. A former Chief Executive of Sport NSW, Steve has provided sport and major-event consultancy in Australia and overseas, and is a Visiting Fellow with the World Academy of Sport, facilitating and lecturing in courses for sporting federations and governments.

He has served on the boards of Paralympics Australia, Snow Australia and Rowing Australia, and is a recipient of the Australian Sports Medal.