Meet the Kingmakers Team!
Malika Jacobs
Founder and CEO
she/her
Malika founded Kingmakers as a brick-and-mortar game parlour in 2014, and today oversees day-to-day operations across all functional areas.
Highly adaptable and naturally curious about designing high-functioning workplaces where employees love to work, Malika is proud of the team she’s built and the vibrant vision they have brought to life. She’s passionate about solving problems and bringing people together, something that often goes hand-in-hand.
Malika understands that businesses thrive when their employees flourish autonomously and collaborate with ease – through Kingmakers, Malika fully embodies the sentiment that teamwork makes the dream work.
✨ Malika’s favorite spice? Cumin
✨ Fun fact: Malika is Canadian by birth. Cool, eh?
Jessica Strauss
Director of Innovation and Experience
she/her
Jessica oversees the design, innovation and quality assurance of all Kingmakers offerings.
With a theatre background that has rooted her firmly in the transformative power of play (and a passion for inviting others to weave play into their day), Jessica crafts impactful events that effectively bond the groups she works with.
Jessica is proud to be part of a team that believes deeply in each other and the value they bring to the world.
✨ Jessica’s favorite beve? A toasty chai latte
✨ Did you know that she is also a trapeze artist?? What?!
Adilson Graca
Director of Sales and Client Success
he/him
As the Director of Sales and Client Success, Adilson implements growth strategies that provide a consistently positive customer experience.
Known for his signature ability to boost project success by identifying needs and implementing impactful changes, Adilson is a natural leader who finds joy in achieving powerful results alongside his colleagues.
Adilson envisions a world rooted in meaningful conversations about the importance of individuality in all aspects of life and the magic that happens when individuals are brought together through a common language of compassion and empowerment.
✨ Adilson’s favorite herb? Quote from our arbiter of puns: “I’m just here for a good thyme.”
✨ His #1 hobby? Chores. Well, more specifically any lengthy household chore that allows him to listen to an audiobook.
Ash Gerlach
Director of Marketing and Communication
she/they
At Kingmakers, Ash develops marketing and communications strategies to help companies discover that more joyful, tight-knit teams are well within their reach – and only a few games away.
Ash loves the deep sense of trust shared by the team, and the anti-racist and anti-capitalist lens through which Kingmakers functions. Continually inspired by her colleagues’ thoughtfulness and tenacity, Ash cherishes harnessing the collective thought-power of the team as a whiplash of ever-evolving and caring interpersonal genius.
Ash is excited to continue pushing Kingmakers to the front of the much-needed conversation surrounding radical employee care.
✨ Ash thinks the best drinks have a lil kick – sprinkle that cayenne in your lattes, hot cocoa, beer…
✨ Fun fact: Ash is photographer!