Ellen Beeman
Chair, Programs
Program Manager, New Consumer Products, Microsoft

Ellen Guon Beeman has fifteen years of experience in designing, writing, and producing games. She began her games career as a project manager at Sierra, then joined Origin to write and direct games in the Wing Commander series. She has also held salaried positions at Electronics Arts and Monolith Productions. As a freelancer, she worked for Disney, Sega, Leapfrog, Mary-Margaret.com, and other companies. Prior to her games career, Ellen was a children's television writer, and has published four novels and several short stories. Ellen has been a speaker at the Game Developer Conference, SXSW Interactive, and other game industry events.

Brenda Brathwaite
Game Designer and Professor, Savannah College of Art and Design

A 27-year veteran of the video game industry, Brenda Brathwaite is an award-winning game designer and has worked on 22 internationally known titles including titles in the Def Jam, Dungeons & Dragons and Wizardry series. Brathwaite serves on the board of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), was the chair of the IGDA's Education SIG Ad hoc Committee and the co-founder and chair of the IGDA's Savannah chapter. She was named one of the top 20 most influential women in the game industry by Gamasutra.com in 2008 and of the 100 most influential women in the game industry by Next Generation magazine in 2007. Nerve magazine also called her one of the "the 50 artists, actors, authors, activists and icons who are making the world a more stimulating place". She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and most recently was invited to participate in the exclusive Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference where she defeated the maker of Tetris.

Her current works lean toward non-digital, art and social games. She is presently building a series of six "gallery games" for an installation titled The Mechanic is the Message.

Billy Cain
VP of Development, Critical Mass Interactive

Billy Cain’s game industry career began in 1992 at the legendary development studio, Origin Systems, where he ultimately served as lead designer on Electronic Arts’ multi-million dollar franchise title, Wing Commander: Prophecy. He has designed, developed, produced, and contributed to many award-winning video games including Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice "Favorite Video Game of the Year" SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman.

As co-founder of Critical Mass Interactive with his partner, Matthew Scibilia, Mr. Cain has created a world-class game development and outsourcing company that has served Disney, Electronic Arts, Midway, NCsoft, Sega, Sony, THQ, Universal, and many other studios.

Due to his wide network of industry contacts and his fierce commitment to foster communication and information sharing in the interactive development community, he is a frequent speaker at international game-related conferences and universities.

Billy has assisted in the formation and creation of three world renown video game conferences, Austin Game Developers’ Conference, Independent Game Conference, and Game Education Summit, each of which support and encourage communication between game developers and educational institutions. He is currently vice-chair of the Austin Chapter of the International Game Developers’ Association and promotes education through his work at St. Edward’s University, Austin Community College, and Full Sail University. He also participates in GameCamp and 3D Squared, each of which uses video game design and production in education to support Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) workforce development in Texas and Louisiana.

Sande Chen
Writer and Game Designer

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose game credits span 10 years in the industry. Her writing credits include 1999 Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the PC RPG of the Year, The Witcher, for which she was nominated for a 2007 Writers Guild Award in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing. A prolific writer and community advocate, Sande Chen is the co-author of the book, Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform and a contributor to Writing for Video Game Genres, Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing, and Secrets of the Game Business. In 2006, she was profiled as one of the Game Industry’s 100 Most Influential Women for her work as Director of the non-profit, Girls in Games. She has spoken about games at conferences around the globe, including the Game Developers Conference, Women's Game Conference, and the Serious Games Summit D.C. She also has a Grammy nomination.

Karen Clark
Chair, Mentor Program
Project Manager, Electronic Arts

Karen Clark has been in the software and gaming industry since 2001. She began her career at Xinet, where she spent several years working in Technical Support, QA, and Project Management. She then joined Linden Lab to work on Second Life in 2005, serving as build engineer and release manager before moving on to manage projects for the development team. She joined EA in 2008 as a project manager at Bioware in Edmonton before making the switch to EA Online.

Karen is a Certified Scrum Master and an advocate for Agile methodologies including Scrum and Extreme Programming. She also has a great passion for mentoring and career advancement in the video game industry. As Mentor Program Chair for Women in Games International, she founded GameMentorOnline to provide mentoring for students interested in entering the industry.

Mia Consalvo
Associate Professor, Ohio University

Mia Consalvo is an Associate Professor in the School of Media Arts & Studies at Ohio University. She is a regular speaker at the Game Developer's Conferece where she has worked to promote more industry and academic collaborations. She has been quoted in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Business Week regarding women and games and the game industry generally. Her current research examines women¹s gameplay, the economics of the videogame industry, and pedagogical uses of games. She has given more than 60 conference and invited presentations, and is currently writing a book on the role of Japan in the digital game industry.

Krissie Franco
Co-founder and Exe. V.P. of Production, Hydrogen Whiskey Studios
Chair, Chapter Liaison

Krissie Franco is Co-founder and Exe. V.P. of Production at Hydrogen Whiskey Studios. Founding, promoting, and overseeing day-to-day management of an art, animation and audio production studio for 15 years, Krissie has a broad perspective and understanding of the ever-changing demands in the game industry. As WIGI Chapter Chair, Krissie strives to reach into communities and build sustainable groups of motivated and outstanding individuals to offer community networking, support and education.

Tamir Nadav
Chair, Volunteer Coordinator
Game Designer, Vigil Games

Tamir Nadav is a game designer, former programmer, and a valedictorian baccalaureate graduate of Full Sail in 2005. He has been involved in the industry for over 6 years with his enthusiastic networking abilities, and can be seen at many different events and schools, assisting current students in preparing to enter the industry. Aside from his duties as a designer, Tamir has been consistently speaking at conventions and universities on business communications, how to meet people, and how to get a job in the game industry. He has quickly become a known name and face in this industry, and built a vast network of industry peers, both young and old. He has been interviewed by EGM, IGN, and was featured in the popular how-to book published by Prima Games, Paid to Play: An Insider's Guide to Video Game Careers. As Volunteer Coordinator Chair, he brings his network and enthusiasm to WIGI, and shares his endless drive and motivation with anyone he interacts with in the games field. Currently, Tamir is a Game Designer at Vigil Games, working on Warhammer 40k Online.

Tim Ray
IT Manager, Amplify Federal Credit Union

Game industry experience started in 1982 with playtest work for paper game company Steve Jackson Games. Went on to work at Origin Systems in 1991, left to join Her Interactive in 1993, then into the IT industry in 1998. IT and security expert, holds IAM/IEM NSA certification, CISSP and MCSE. Currently working for the Amplify Federal Credit Union as IT Manager and e-security specialist. Extensive vendor and contract management experience for the last six years. Married to Sheri Graner Ray (1996 to present).

Early background includes a BA in Microbiology from the University of Texas. Interests include paper games, time trial racing with NASA and World of Warcraft. Avid, lifetime gamer.

Bonnie Ruberg
Freelance Video Game Journalist

Bonnie Ruberg is a freelance video games journalist based in San Francisco. She specializes in sexuality, gender, and gaming culture, and writes for publications like The Economist, Forbes, and Wired Magazine.

Sheri Rubin
CEO/President, Design, Direct, Deliver

Sheri Rubin is president and CEO of Design, Direct, Deliver, a company that provides independent contract and consulting services to businesses both in and outside the game industry. An avid and life-long game lover, she began participating in tournaments during high school and volunteered for a collectable card game company while in college. That experience ultimately inspired her to leave the accounting field for the thrilling world of video games.

Sheri was elected to the International Game Developers Association's Programs and Membership Committee in 2007 and is also the founder and current chair of the Quality Assurance Special Interest Group. She has appeared on two G4TV shows and was one of only three volunteers highlighted in the 2005 IGDA Annual Report. Though she has more than 30 game credits under her belt, Sheri's greatest professional pride came from showing her father her name on the Golden Tee machine in their local Chicago pizzeria.

Her company's website can be found at www.designdirectdeliver.com.

Mary Margaret Walker
CEO, Mary-Margaret Network

Walker leads the recruitment strategies and new business endeavors for Mary-Margaret Network. Prior to launching her recruiting firm in 1996, she was Manager of Studio Services for The 3DO Company, managing the milestones and development process of all projects in production and the hiring of over 200 employees. Previously, she was at Origin Systems where she created the company’s Human Resources department and contributed to titles in development as a Design Manager.

Belinda Van Sickle
Chair, Community Mixers
Steering Committee Member
President, GameDocs

Belinda Van Sickle is president of GameDocs, Inc-video game industry box & docs, manual writing, localizations, B-to-B, collateral, online and other marketing materials. She started her game career in 1996 at Activision as Documentation Writer/Production Artist doing manual text and layout. In 1999, she became one of the founding employees at Ignited Minds, an advertising agency that specialized in game industry advertising. In 2005, she started GameDocs, and the company has since built a diverse client roster of both large and small publishers.

Belinda spearheads the WIGI LinkedIn network and organizes WIGI community mixers in the Los Angeles area and at major industry conferences. She also provides support for WIGI community mixers across the country.

Amy Allison
Mixer Speaker Coordinator
Director of Game Marketing, mOcean

Amy Allison, mOcean’s Director of Game Marketing, is excited to bring years of experience of creating video game promotional assets to WIGI’s mixer committee. She manages her team in the creation of varied video assets; including trailers, behind the scenes series, tutorials, walkthrough, in-theatre promotions and many more. Previously Amy was at a leading game publisher where she was able to work closely with gaming professionals in marketing, production, development, quality assurance, public relations, legal, and talent/VO on a regular basis. This gave her a broad accessibility to all types of talent which makes our industry remarkable.

In her role with WIGI, Amy will specifically be focused on finding speakers in the industry to help educate and inspire current and future women in the games arena.

Nathalie Sparks
Mixer Volunteer Coordinator
Sales Operations Manager, Crytek

It’s a pleasure and an honor for Nathalie Sparks, working as Sales Operations Manager at Crytek since February 2009, to be part of WIGI’s mixer committee. She has fifteen years of experience in the fields of Sales, Event management and Marketing.

Before joining the German game developer and being responsible for selling their AAA game development solution, CryENGINE 3, Nathalie has served as a Sales Program Manager and as Developer Relations Manager at Emergent Game Technologies for around 2 ½ years.

In 2006 she was the Senior Conference Manager of Austin Game Developers’ Conference. She has assisted in the formation and creation of this world renowned video game conference. Previously, Nathalie has worked in the field of Channel Development Marketing at Neverfail Inc. and was responsible for creating and implementing marketing initiatives for their technology partners.

Before coming to Criterion Software, a division of Electronic Arts, and working there as Sales Operations Manager, Nathalie served sales at Traq Wireless. Her career itself began as Business Sales Representative of Dell Inc., after having earned a bachelor’s degree in International Studies with focus on Europe from the St. Edward’s University, Austin.

Ernest Adams
Game Designer, International Hobo Design Group

Ernest Adams is a freelance game designer, writer, and teacher, working with the International Hobo Design Group. He has worked in the game industry since 1989, and has long been interested in issues related to women and gaming. Ernest was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions on the Dungeon Keeper series, and for several years before that was the audio/video producer on the Madden NFL Football line for Electronic Arts. Ernest is also the founder and first chairman of the IGDA, and established as one of its major tasks the goal attracting more women to the industry. His website is at www.designersnotebook.com.

Lucy Bradshaw
VP and Head of Production and Development, Maxis/Electronic Arts

Lucy Bradshaw tells her kids that when she was young, she had to walk an 8 mile paper route through the harsh winter conditions of her home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Even at the young age of 10, she proved herself to have enough strength, focus, and creativity to get a difficult job done. These same qualities have helped her achieve success in her present position at Maxis.

As executive producer of The Sims 2, the fastest selling PC game of all time, Lucy oversaw the overall game design and played a major role in its unprecedented success. She encourages people to express creativity and enables ownership to the teams. Her experience at Activision, Lucas Arts, and Electronic Arts served as a launching pad when Lucy decided to join Maxis after it was acquired by EA in 1997.

Prior to working in the gaming industry, Lucy received a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan. She originally began working on SimCity 3000 and then worked on The Sims, SimCity 4, and The Sims 2. She is currently working hand in hand with Will Wright on Spore, which recently took home the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo awards of; Most Creative Game, Best PC Game and Best Simulation.

Fiona Cherbak
VP, Business Development, GameX

Fiona is Vice President of Business Development for the Games & Media Expo (GameX), an NBC-backed game consumer show and industry conference. Fiona has enjoyed a career in business development, marketing, recruiting and strategic planning for clients in games, entertainment, technology and finance, with her early career spent at The Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios.

Fiona has implemented marketing, PR, event production and advertising campaigns for a multitude of notable corporate and entertainment clients, including Comedy Central, HBO, Fox Broadcasting Corporation, ABC-TV, Time Warner, Nickelodeon, RC Cola and Marvel Comics.

Fiona has worked closely with various professional member societies and organizations such as IEEE, ITSC, AIGA and SIGGRAPH, serving on advisory boards, producing events and handling marketing, fundraising, promotions and PR for numerous national and regional programs.

Fiona is Chairperson for IGDA Women in Games, and advisory board member for SXSW Screenburn, IndieCade, Women in Games International and Austin ACM SIGGRAPH. She serves as a regular speaker and editorialist on diversity hiring issues and career development in the games industry.

Don Daglow
Consultant - Game Design & Production, Interactive Entertainment

Don Daglow serves as an independent consultant and speaker on game design, development and production. In 2008 he was selected for an Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering for his work creating Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). He is one of only three game designers or producers (with id Software's John Carmack and Blizzard's Mike Morhaime) to be selected for a Technical Emmy and to accept an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Achievement Award. Electronic Games has called him "one of the best-known and respected producers in the history of the field," and in 2003 he received the CGE Award for "groundbreaking achievements that shaped the Video Game Industry."

Don served as president and CEO of Stormfront Studios for twenty years after founding the company in 1988. Prior to founding Stormfront, he served as director of Intellivision game development for Mattel, as a producer at a small start-up called Electronic Arts, and as head of the Entertainment and Education division at Broderbund. At EA he produced two of the first three EA sports titles.

He designed and programmed the first-ever computer baseball game and first sports simulation in 1971 (now recorded in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown), the first mainframe computer role-playing game ("Dungeon" for PDP-10 mainframes, 1975), the first sim game (Intellivision Utopia, 1981) and the first game to use multiple camera angles (Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, 1983). He co-designed Computer Game Hall of Fame title Earl Weaver Baseball (1987) as well as the original Neverwinter Nights for AOL (1991-97).

He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in 2003 and again in 2007. He serves on the selection committee for the AIAS Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund, on the Advisory Board for GDC Europe, on the Advisory Board for Women in Games International (WIGI), and on multiple committees for the IGDA.

Don also is a past winner of the National Endowment for the Humanities New Voices playwriting competition, and has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

He speaks extensively around the world on the topics of game design, Interactive Media and the video games industry, and has delivered keynote addresses in Canada, Germany, the UK and the United States. His posts are featured in the Expert Blogs section at Gamasutra.com, the largest game development website on the Internet.

He holds a BA in Writing from Pomona College and an Ed.M. from Claremont Graduate University.

Laura Fryer
Executive Producer, Microsoft Game Studios

As executive producer for Microsoft Game Studios (MGS), Laura Fryer works to make Microsoft game titles the most sought after offerings on the market. Named one of The Hollywood Reporter's "Top 12 Most Influential Women in Gaming in 2004," Fryer is recognized as one of the most promising young leaders in the entertainment industry. In 1995, Fryer became one of the first members of MGS. During her tenure, she shipped six games including the classic Crimson Skies. As one of the founders of MSN's Zone.com, she conceived and produced the first Microsoft release of Zone.com, and produced Fighter Ace 1.0, Microsoft's first massively multiplayer game. Fryer left MGS to become a founding member of the Xbox project in May 2000 as the Director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group responsible for making Xbox the ultimate platform for game developers. During her four years with Xbox, she cultivated worldwide Xbox Developer Support, created the Xbox Advisory Board, and ran Xbox game developer events (a.k.a. Xfests) around the globe.

Laura Fryer is dedicated to fostering the role of women in the video games industry. In 2000 she was one of the founders of the annual "Women in Gaming" sessions at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). Recently honored for her role as a leading voice in the industry, Fryer was named to the GDC Advisory Board, adding to the already impressive list of industry insiders who work to define market innovations and future vision for the gaming space.

Gano Haine
VP Product Development, LimeLife

Over the past 15 years, Gano has designed and produced many best-selling entertainment software titles for Sierra On-Line, Electronic Arts, and Stunt Puppy Entertainment. As the President and Founding Partner at Stunt Puppy Entertainment, she created high-quality interactive entertainment titles that sold over two million units for clients such as Mattel Media, Atari, and Buena Vista Games. At AT&T's ImagiNation Network and HearMe/Mpath, Gano led the design of innovative consumer online entertainment experiences. Gano has a B.A. from Duke University with Phi Beta Kappa honors, an M.A. in Theatre and Drama from University of Wisconsin at Madison, and did doctoral work in Performance Studies at Northwestern University's School of Speech.

Jen MacLean
Senior Vice President of Business Development; 38 Studios

As the SVP of Business Development for 38 Studios, Jen is responsible for partnerships, business models, and product strategy for one of the most exciting independent massively multiplayer game developers in the interactive entertainment industry. Jen came to 38 Studios from Comcast, where she served as Vice President and General Manager, Games, responsible for management of all games products, strategy, and business development for the United States' largest cable company. She also held roles in sports and entertainment as part of Comcast’s interactive team, negotiating and managing partnerships with Fox Sports, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Real Networks, and Microsoft.

Jen’s extensive and varied experience in online content and interactive entertainment began in 1992 at Microprose Software. She joined AOL in 1996, where she held numerous positions in the AOL brand programming division, including Programming Director for the Games Channel. While at AOL, Jen managed multiple partners and products, including Electronic Arts, Kesmai, Engage Games Online, and Mythic Entertainment.

Jen earned a BA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA with a concentration in international business from the Columbia Business School. Jen was named one of the "Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women" by Next Generation, one of the "Top 20 Women in Games" by Gamasutra, is the Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the IGDA, and is a frequently-requested speaker at interactive entertainment industry events.

Monika Madrid
Director, Strategic Sales and Partnerships, Ubisoft

Monika Madrid is director of strategic sales and partnerships at Ubisoft. Monika joined Ubisoft in 2001 and launched the company’s licensing program for the North American territories. Today Monika manages the team responsible for all of North American non-retail business and key worldwide accounts. She is responsible for Ubisoft’s partnerships for in-game branding and product integration, product and technology bundles, outbound licensing, strategy guides, loyalty programs and Macintosh ports. Monika’s team has grown revenue to $3.5 million and has established partnerships with high-profile companies including Yahoo, Bell Canada, AMD and nVIDIA.

Prior to Ubisoft, Monika was business development manager at Snowball.com, the parent company of several videogame and teen-focused lifestyle Web sites. At Snowball.com, Monika developed and maintained strategic partnerships with annual revenues of more than $1 million each. Monika was also responsible for overseeing execution of partnerships in coordination with product management, client services, advertising, operations, engineering, affiliate services and finance.

Prior to Snowball.com, Monika was an account supervisor at Access Communications, a public relations and marketing agency. At Access, Monika developed national public relations and marketing campaigns for Internet, videogame, technology and blue-chip companies.

Monika earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She lives in San Francisco.

David Schnepp
Advisor/Board Member, Nena Media

David Schnepp is a strategic consultant specializing in business development, marketing and fundraising for early-stage and emerging growth companies in the interactive, film/tv, financial services and e-business industries. Currently, David is an advisor and board member to Nena Media, Inc., a leading designer and producer of interactive and animated entertainment products for girls. He was instrumental with the creation of a business plan, fundraising and development of key strategic partnerships. Most recently, David has been advising a series of new ventures that are focused on the on-line games and social networking markets. Since 2002, David has provided his services to a select client base of companies, including LegalZoom.com, 1-800-Free-411(Free411.com), Hammond Entertainment, and RKO Pictures. In addition to his business consulting services, David has spent over 18 years advising numerous local, state and federal government agencies on low-income asset development policies, small business financing, electronic commerce and technology transfer from university research centers. David received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Masters of Management from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, with an emphasis in marketing, strategy and information technology.

Kathy Schoback
Executive Vice President and Global Brand Director - Game Group, Think Services

As the Executive Vice President and Global Brand Director for the Game Group of Think Services, a division of United Business Media LLC, Kathy oversees the Game Developers Conference® series of events, which take place in San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; Vancouver, Canada; Shanghai, China; and Cologne, Germany. She also manages print products and websites for the Game Group, which includes Gamasutra.com and Game Developer. In her role as Executive Vice President and Global Brand Director, Kathy manages the talented Product Managers who make these events and publications come alive, contributing to the value which Think Services provides to game developers worldwide.

Kathy rejoined the company in 2006 as Group Director of what was then the CMP Game Group, and began relentlessly evolving the products to better serve game developers. During her tenure, the group launched its most successful international events in its history - ChinaGDC and ParisGDC - and successfully nurtured AustinGDC after its acquisition. After United Business Media spun off Think Services as an independent subsidiary, Kathy was elevated to the position she now holds as Executive Vice President and Global Brand Director for the Game Group, where she is able to provide her in-depth knowledge of the game development industry to continue to develop and grow the Game market segment.

A game industry veteran, Kathy began her career at SEGA of America, training people and answering phones in the consumer call center. Kathy’s talent contributed to her upward mobility; in her nine years at SEGA, she occupied a variety of relationship management and business development positions, in which she routinely exceeded sales and revenue targets. Other professional experience includes working as Director of Product Operations at Eidos and VP of Content Acquisition for AGEIA Technologies, as well as serving on the Game Developers Conference advisory board, as Chair of the International Game Developers Association, and participating in the steering committee of Women in Games International.

Kathy graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley. In her spare time, Kathy enjoys spending time in Club Penguin with her nine-year-old daughter. She also enjoys running and hiking and is an enthusiastic amateur drummer.

Alice Taylor
Vice President - Digital Content, BBC Worldwide, Los Angeles

Alice Taylor has a decade of experience working in new media, from early days developing the first Channel4.com in 1996 to recent projects at the BBC in digital media Strategy & Innovation. Alice specialises in sociable software and videogaming crossovers with television and radio.

Alice speaks publicly on games and sociable media, and was recently a judge for the 2005 Mackies, the annual Machinima awards, and the 2007 Independent Games Festival. She also contributes to conferences and events, most recently the 2005 and 2006 Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festivals (eief.co.uk), and the 2006 AULA in Helsinki.

Alice writes at the gamecentric blog Wonderland (www.wonderlandblog.com) and has written about gaming for sites and magazines, including BBC News, Kotaku.com, the Guardian, the New Statesman and Paste. She used to play semi-professional Quake in her spare time, and was on the first UK team playing international matches.

Alice is currently living and working in Los Angeles, where she is also a fellow at USC. You will also often find her in World of Warcraft (Magtheridon US and Runetotem UK, both Crystaltips) or Second Life (Crystaltips Pavlova).