{"id":432,"date":"2023-06-06T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T13:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:07:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T11:07:58","slug":"z-man-games-founder-zev-shlasinger-to-leave-wizkids-after-seven-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/06\/z-man-games-founder-zev-shlasinger-to-leave-wizkids-after-seven-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Z-Man Games founder Zev Shlasinger to leave WizKids after seven years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Zev Shlasinger, the founder of original Pandemic publisher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zmangames.com\/en\/index\/\">Z-Man Games<\/a>, is leaving his role as director of board game development at <a href=\"https:\/\/wizkids.com\/\">WizKids<\/a> after seven years with the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WizKids said Shlasinger had helped expand the company from a &#8220;small catalog anchored by critical hits <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/91536\/quarriors\">Quarriors<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/96848\/mage-knight-board-game\">Mage Knight<\/a>&#8220;, adding titles including <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/202426\/sidereal-confluence\">Sidereal Confluence<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/223040\/fantasy-realms\" title=\"\">Fantasy Realms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/328478\/dungeons-dragons-dungeon-scrawlers-heroes-undermou\">Dungeon Scrawlers<\/a> to its range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shlasinger created Z-Man Games in 2000, and struck huge success by publishing Matt Leacock&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/30549\/pandemic\">Pandemic<\/a> in 2008. The game has gone on to sell several million copies and was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres &#8211; the biggest award in board gaming &#8211; in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He sold Z-Man to Filosofia owner Sophie Gravel in 2011, and left the company in 2016 to join WizKids as head of board game operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A statement from WizKids said it &#8220;came to terms on a mutual and amicable parting of ways&#8221; with Shlasinger, who is currently seeking new opportunities in the tabletop industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Justin Ziran, president of WizKids, said, &#8220;I look forward to future collaborations with Zev should our paths cross, and I sincerely hope they do.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WizKids, a subsidiary of licenced collectibles manufacturer NECA, publishes games including Mage Knight, <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/40765\/clash-cultures\">Clash of Cultures<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/148575\/marvel-dice-masters-avengers-vs-x-men\"> Marvel Dice Masters<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/139771\/star-trek-attack-wing\">Star Trek: Attack Wing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-black-color has-text-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/BoardGameWire\/about\" style=\"background-color:#f6bf00\">Help keep BoardGameWire producing high-quality news and features focused on the business of board games &#8211; Click here to join our Patreon community<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zev Shlasinger, the founder of original Pandemic publisher Z-Man Games, is leaving his role as director of board game development at WizKids after seven years with the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[174,175,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-job","tag-leaves","tag-wizkids","tag-z-man-games","tag-zev-shlasinger"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}