The Skillz Team

Andrew Paradise is the CEO and Founder of Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ), the leading mobile games platform for fair, fun, and meaningful competition, and the first publicly-traded mobile esports platform in the world. A pioneer of the idea of “esports for everyone,” under Paradise’s leadership Skillz has become an industry leader in mobile gaming, with a current market cap of $3.5 billion.

Paradise has been the founding inventor behind companies in technology sectors ranging from eCommerce to image recognition to HR technology. His passion for innovation and tech started early: at the age of seven he learned to program by hacking a video game. He began his professional career in private equity and venture capital, but in 2008 pivoted into tech when he founded his first business, Double Picture, an advertising technology firm. He sold the company to MPA, Inc. in 2010.

In 2010, Paradise founded AisleBuyer, best known for pioneering mobile self-checkout prior to its sale to Intuit in 2012. That same year, along with his fellow AisleBuyer executive Casey Chafkin, he founded Skillz, with a mission to democratize the emerging world of mobile gaming by creating the competition layer of the Internet. The Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games. Leveraging its patented technology, Skillz hosts billions of tournaments for millions of mobile players worldwide, and distributes millions in prizes each month.

Paradise earned his B.A. in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor’s of Commerce in Economics from the University of Auckland. A sought-after thought leader, he has been featured in such outlets as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, Fast Company, and CNBC. In 2018, he was named to the San Francisco Business Times’ “40 Under 40 Class.” He has also spoken at preeminent conferences including SXSW, CES, and GDC.

Casey Chafkin is the Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ), the first publicly-traded mobile esports platform in the world. In his role, Chafkin oversees key strategic initiatives for the company.

He began his career as a market analyst and brand strategist for CarMax before joining AisleBuyer in 2010, where he served as Vice President of Business Development prior to the company’s sale to Intuit in 2012. At AisleBuyer he met Andrew Paradise, and in 2012 the two founded Skillz, the mobile gaming platform that helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling social competition in their games.

Chafkin earned his BS in Economics at Duke University and an MBA from Harvard University. A well-respected authority on mobile payments and performance marketing, Chafkin has been featured in outlets such as CNBC, VentureBeat, and the Silicon Valley Business Journal and is a sought-after panelist and commentator at global tech conferences.

As the President at Skillz, Jason Roswig is responsible for the oversight of all of the company’s operations functions, including administrative, workplace, people, and strategy.

Prior to joining Skillz in 2022, Roswig served as Managing Director for Blackstone's Private Equity and Portfolio Operations groups, where he had oversight of the financial and operating performance of Blackstone's technology portfolio. Prior to Blackstone, Roswig served as an Expert Associate Partner in McKinsey & Company's Corporate Finance and Organization practices from 2012-2018. Prior to McKinsey & Company, Roswig served in a variety of Corporate Development roles at General Electric from 2000-2012.

Roswig holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and German from Bowdoin College.

Alvin Lobo joined Skillz in February 2023 as Chief Financial Officer, leading the company’s finance functions, including accounting, FP&A, and investor relations. Prior to joining Skillz, Lobo served as Chief Financial Officer at Score Media and Gaming, overseeing all financial and accounting operations within the organization, leading major growth and funding initiatives, including the company’s U.S. IPO and eventual sale to Penn Entertainment. Prior to that, Lobo spent several years in the gaming industry, serving as Vice President of Corporate Finance for Boyd Gaming Corporation and as Director of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations for Wynn Resorts. Earlier experience includes Investment Banking roles at Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers, and Bank of America. Lobo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Charlotte Edelman is the General Counsel at Skillz, where she oversees all legal and regulatory matters affecting the company. She was also a key leader as Skillz went public in 2020.

An experienced middle-market dealmaker, Edelman has deep experience counseling companies from start-up to exit, investors, and funds. Over the course of her career, Edelman has developed broad transactional experience, advising leading companies on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments, and joint ventures across a range of industries, including technology, healthcare, telecommunications, retail, and consumer products.

Prior to joining Skillz in 2020, Edelman served as a member of the New York law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. for more than 20 years. She met Skillz’s founders, CEO Andrew Paradise and CRO Casey Chafkin, when she represented them in the sale of their prior company, AisleBuyer, to Intuit in 2012.

Edelman earned her Juris Doctor from the Boston University School of Law, and has a Bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College.

Val Texin is the Chief Financial Officer of Competition Platform at Skillz, where she drives financial excellence for the company’s core business. In this role, Texin oversees the finance organization, including FP&A and accounting.

Before joining Skillz in 2022, Texin previously led Content FP&A at Netflix and was CFO & SVP Finance, for NBCUniversal’s International Studios. Having spent 13 years at NBCUniversal, Texin worked in roles across Los Angeles, New York, and London.

Texin earned her MBA at NYU Stern School of Business and her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Vassily Filippov is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ), the leading mobile games dedicated to bringing out the best in everyone through competition.

Filippov has turned his childhood passion for video games into a career in the gaming industry. Growing up he played Atari 800XL and C64 games spending after school hours with Blue Max, Missile Command, and Asteroids. Early childhood passion turned into more than 20 years of Games Industry career as Filippov made games at Sierra On-Line, Sony, and Riot. His work spans franchises like God of War and League of Legends, covering several generations of consoles and video cards, as well as a few generations of gamers.

Most recently, Filippov focused on growing teams and building products connected to AR/VR and the Metaverse. At Apple, he led the development of RealityKit and Reality Composer. While at Meta, Filippov focused on Horizon Worlds and Avatars teams, preparing the company to announce a major focus on Metaverse and a name change.

Coming to Skillz is truly reconnecting him to his gaming roots, returning home to the gaming industry, and re-igniting his passion to serve the needs of players.