Ryan J.

Ryan J. began their professional career in 2013 as a Professional Musician, travelling throughout the rust belt and the Great Lakes Northeast United States, performing music of a variety of genres with multiple gigging bands and working as a session musician in studio or live. In 2015, they joined PvP Live as a Managing Editor, where they were in charge of daily operations including editing, assigning content, training esports award nominated writers and designers, providing feedback and daily management of a team of around 8 people. Their own articles were produced in a timely manner often exceeding 10,000 words of written content per day, in majority focused on Dota 2 news, analysis, interviews and editorials.

In 2016, Ryan J. moved to Elo Entertainment LLC as a Social Media Manager, where they were responsible for creating daily social media content about esports & gaming, interacting with fans and performing occasional customer service. Their writing contributed the site's contemporaneously most-visited analysis articles.

In 2017, Ryan J. joined Unikrn as Head of Communications & Content. As a product designer and communications strategist, their communications strategies were a driving force behind Unikrn's successful exit to EntainGroup in one of esports' largest private sales to date. Ryan was also a product manager, creating new products which ultimately brought in 1 in 5 bets ever placed on Unikrn and won multiple industry awards, including Esports Innovator of the Year 2021 and Wagering Innovation of the Year 2020.

In 2020, Ryan J. joined Esports GG as Head Of Operations / Founding Advisor, where they worked with founders to set medium and long term strategies, recruited talent execute that strategy, and ensured smooth week-to-week operations, budgeting, payables, hiring and execution on partnerships. Ryan also acted as the lead communications strategist behind partnerships, recruitment and investor relations, ultimately culminating in a successful acquisition setting the company up for a rapid growth.

Finally, in 2022, Ryan J. joined Irreverent Labs as Lead Product Designer. After many contributions to product, game and UI/UX design, they were shifted from communications and community to focus on game and product design for the digital-first company. Working with multidisciplined teams in machine learning, artificial intelligence, Unity & game development, art, community & blockchain, they created and helped refine user experiences across a multitude of projects. This included UI/UX interface design, game mechanics for human and non-human participants, game design across multigenre minigames, solo & team development of game demos and other applications, and initial monetization strategy, among other tasks.

Ryan J. attended Michigan State University from 2007 to 2011, where they obtained a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and an English & Film degree in Literature & Fiction Film Production. Additionally, they obtained a certification from the University of California, Davis in March 2020 for Introduction to Search E.