Gina Jackson, who was most recently the head of business development for New Media at Eidos, has been hired by Women in Games Jobs (WIGJ) as CEO. She will be the first CEO for WIGJ, which was founded in 2009 by David Smith, and will be responsible for finding new ways to bring women into the video games business.

Gina Jackson, CEO WIGJ

“The level of awareness of the gender imbalance in the games sector has increased significantly in recent months, but there is more that can be done to encourage the recruitment and retention of a more diverse games industry workforce,” Smith said.

I’m excited to see what Jackson brings to the table. Just the other day, I saw an advertisement on the side of my Facebook that said “Girl Gamer?” and had a picture of a woman’s hand with her nails painted to look like a Nintendo controller. Instead of the drivel I expected to see, it was actually an advertisement for learning how to design and create games. Times are changing, and even though there is still a lot of work to be done, as Jackson mentioned: the awareness has increased.

Jackson previously worked for Kuju and Ocean Software. She will attend the Develop in Brighton conference on July 11th.

For more information on Women in Game Jobs, please visit their site.