Chris Mellor

Background

About Chris Mellor

Known in the industry as the 'Commercial Guy', I’m a Yorkshire lad turned Co-Owner & Director at Aardvark Swift, helping gaming studios, toy companies, licensing brands, and entertainment businesses worldwide find the commercial talent that truly levels up their business. From ambitious start-ups to iconic studios, I recruit across the full commercial spectrum: Community & Social Media Brand, Product & Trade Marketing Business Development, Sales & E-commerce Data Analytics & BI Legal & Licensing (up to Director level) PR, Comms & Editorial 🧠 Senior Leadership — CEO, CMO, VP, GM, CCO & more Basically: If you make games or work in entertainment and need top-tier commercial talent — I’m your guy. If you are top-tier talent and want a role worth waking up for — also your guy. Over the past decade, I’ve worked my way up from Consultant to Director, building specialist teams, long-term partnerships, and high-performing client accounts. I’ve: • Scaled client accounts into multi-year partnerships, delivering consistent six-figure revenue growth • Designed and closed innovative commercial models — retained, embedded, contingent, subscription — tailored to client needs • Forged C-suite relationships across studios, toy, licensing, and entertainment companies worldwide • Represented clients and the business at Gamescom, GDC, Pocket Gamer Connects, Develop:Brighton, BLE, and Toy Fair My ethos? People-first recruitment with personality. No buzzwords. No fluff. Just honest conversations, strong relationships, and results that actually make a difference. Outside of work, I’m a CrossFit wannabe, dad-on-the-run, long-suffering Sheffield Wednesday fan — and I once met Arnie (yes, that Arnie). I’m competitive at pretty much everything… FIFA, burpees, or who eats the most pizza — I’m in. Need a talent partner — and someone with a huge bag of biz dev skills — who actually gets your industry? Or just fancy a chat about your next move… or next deal? chris@aswift.com 01709