Newman Scott Hunter_

A dream, and a foundation in trusted data

At sixteen, I dreamed of seeing my name in the credits of a AAA game. That ambition set me on a path into technology, but my first job out of school taught me something that has stayed with me ever since: useful systems begin with access to information people can trust.

At Standardbred Canada, I built TrackIT from the server rack through the web application and payments, while also working in IT. It gave people access to racing, pedigree, and performance information. Within two years of its creation, it became the organization’s leading source of revenue. The idea was straightforward; making trusted data accessible made the difference.

At Fuel Industries in Ottawa, I grew from senior web developer to VP Engineering, working on social games and web experiences for clients including Microsoft and HBO. Projects such as Pogo Puppies and ServerQuest II brought creative ideas together with the engineering needed to make them work.

Building worlds, and the systems they share

Along the way, I fell in love with the complexity of massively multiplayer online worlds and the shared technology behind games. At Disney Interactive, I led development work for Club Penguin, served as technical lead for Puffle Launch, and also worked on an unreleased title. Working on a live virtual world taught me how to build on a steady cadence, and how the right systems and processes help a team turn creative ideas into reliable, repeatable releases.

At EA Sports, I helped build foundational technologies for content sharing and social connection, leading work on services that stored and delivered player-created content and connected players with one another. These shared services gave game teams reusable capabilities across franchises including FIFA, Madden, NHL, NBA, and UFC. For players, that meant more ways to share their creations and stay connected to the communities around their games.

Those possibilities remain central to EA Sports games today: creating custom content with Team Builder, or finding friends and playing together through EA Connect. They reflect the enduring value of giving players ways to make an experience their own and share it with others.

At Microsoft’s The Coalition, I worked on cloud services for Gears of War 4.

I later returned to Electronic Arts, where I became Group Technical Director (GTD), responsible for global analytics across all EA titles. I led the technical direction, delivery, and operation of data and analytics platforms that helped studios worldwide understand their games and make informed decisions.

My responsibilities spanned data engineering, analytics, platform reliability, and tools for developers and testers, as well as the design, delivery, and operation of AI and machine-learning platforms. I worked through technical leaders to develop our teams and build shared capabilities that studios could depend on. We turned gameplay data into practical insights that helped teams identify quality issues, make testing more effective, and improve the player experience. That work included two U.S. patents.

EA gave me the chance to live my childhood dream. Being part of that team remains one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’ll always be grateful to everyone I had the chance to work with there, and I think of them as lifelong friends.

People are part of the system

As a leader, I came to understand that people are part of every system we build. How knowledge moves, how decisions are made, and how people support one another shape what an organization can achieve. That realization led me into organizational coaching and a deeper interest in building resilient teams and organizations.

Being a manager means being the kind of leader I would want to report to. I want people to do the best work of their careers, with clear priorities, honest feedback, and room to grow. That also means making the hard calls on scope and trade-offs, removing roadblocks, and making sure the team has what it needs—sometimes including doing the dishes.

I hold a Certificate in Organizational Coaching from UBC. Coaching informs how I listen, ask questions, and help other leaders develop their own judgment.

Putting those ideas to work

Joining DigitalOcean shortly after it went public was an exciting chapter. I led engineering teams building data and business platforms, and deepened my appreciation for trusted data and shared sources of truth that people across the business could understand and use. I believe platforms are about empowerment. Building systems that put knowledge into people’s hands, helping them make informed decisions and move the business forward, made that belief tangible.

Today, as Vice President, Technology at IREN, I have had the opportunity to put more of my ideas about people and systems into practice.

Over an eighteen-month period, I helped build the systems and tools supporting IREN’s expansion from Bitcoin mining into AI cloud infrastructure, as the company achieved NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud status. It brought together the work I care about: complex technology, shared knowledge, and people across specialties building something they could not build alone.

What I’m most proud of

What I’m most proud of is learning how people and technology interact—and using that understanding, through knowledge and systems design, to serve the growth of people and organizations. The scale and setting have changed over my career. That purpose keeps connecting the chapters.