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.

Amy Bendotti has worked as a recruiter for the past nine years in the Seattle area, with over five years working exclusively in the entertainment industry. Amy began her career with the Walt Disney Internet Group and then worked for four years as the Sr. Technical Recruiter of Nintendo of America, where she recruited for Nintendo Software Technology Group and Retro Studios. She recently started working for Monolith Productions. Amy graduated Washington State University with a degree in Sociology.

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.

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.

Dana Hanna's experience as a game producer and designer spans well over a decade. She's probably the only person on the planet who has designed software for robot dogs, produced massively multiplayer games about making pizza, and directed professional wrestlers in photo shoots. Over the course of her career, she's had the honor of working with top talent at Electronic Arts, Sony, and many smaller developers. Her current focuses are massively multiplayer and casual gaming.

Sheri Hargus is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Her Interactive, a gaming company devoted to developing intelligent and challenging interactive adventure games. She has worked in the gaming industry for ten years. Prior to that she worked for many years designing and developing software for publishing and graphic design at Aldus and Adobe.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Computer Animation and Photography from University of Wisconsin in 1994, Suzanne Kaufman went to work for Free Range Digital, a special effects studio run by Brad Carvey based in Albuquerque New Mexico. During her tenure, she worked on various projects for Discovery Channel, Fox, and Universal Television. In 1996 Kaufman relocated to Seattle where she animated, modeled, and textured for Boss Game Studios, Microsoft Corporation, and Sucker Punch Productions. Most recently she modeled character and environments for Sly Cooper, Sucker Punch's critically acclaimed PS2 title. The game was awarded the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences 2003 'Innovation in Art Direction' and 'Innovation in Animation' award and Game Developer's 2003 Best Original Game Character. Currently she is the lead of the Modeling and Animation department at Sucker Punch Productions working with a fantastic team on Sly 3. Kaufman has taught 3d courses at Edmonds Community College and Mesmer. Suzanne has been fortunate to be a guest speaker for Alias on "The Making of Sly Cooper" for Siggraph 2003 in San Diego and Alias European User Group Meeting 2003 in London.

Rick joined Sony Online in July, 2005 from Monolith Productions, part of Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, where he was Director of Online Technology and Lead Engineer for The Matrix Online. Prior to Monolith, Rick was VP of Internet Engineering for LithTech and before that Director of Online Technology for Cavedog and Humongous Entertainment, where he led the development of the Boneyards online gaming system and Junior Sports Network, and multi-player development for Cavedog's award-winning hit real-time strategy game Total Annihilation. Before Humongous Rick was Network Technical Director in the entertainment division of Starwave Corp. Rick attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and received his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Baylor University. He has two U.S. patents in the area of massively multi-player server design.

Shannon Loftis has been publishing games at Microsoft for over 12 years. Among her publishing credits are the Madness racing series, Project Gotham Racing, Rallisport Challenge, Fable, and most recently Jade Empire. Prior to Microsoft Ms. Loftis was a management consultant. She holds a degree in Computer Science and Math from Duke University. When she’s not playing games, she’s enjoying time with her 2 sons, running, or wishing she had time to get current as a pilot again.

Stuart Moulder has been in the interactive entertainment business since 1991 where he began his career with Sierra Online as Producer of Sierra’s first CD-ROM title, Mixed-Up Mother Goose CD. Stuart next worked on Sierra’s pioneering online gaming network: the ImagiNation Network. Joining Microsoft in 1994, Stuart led the growth of Microsoft’s games business from $45 million to over $200 million. During his tenure at Microsoft, Stuart was responsible for Microsoft’s largest franchises including Age of Empires, Flight Simulator and Halo. Stuart also led several of Microsoft’s studio purchases, including the acquisitions of FASA Interactive, Ensemble Studios, and Bungie Studios. In 2004, Stuart joined Wild Tangent where he is responsible for the development of downloadable games for consumers and for corporate clients. During his tenure at Wild Tangent, Stuart has overseen the delivery of nearly a dozen titles to clients ranging from Nike to Coca Cola to Fox TV.

Sheri Graner Ray is Sr. Game Designer with Sony Online Entertainment and author of the book, “Gender Inclusive Game Design-Expanding the Market.” She has served as the co-chair for the Women in Game Development SIG of the IGDA for 4 years and has been a spokesperson for the female game player for many years. In 2004 she was the Chair of the Women’s Game Conference, the first game conference to specifically address the issues of women and games held in the U.S. Before coming to Sony, she served as President of her own studio, Sirenia Software, and before that as Director of Product Development for Her Interactive, where she began her research into females and computer games. She has also worked for Origin Systems as a writer and designer on the Ultima PC series.

Sandra Rumsey has been in the gaming industry since 1993 and is currently the Quality Assurance Manager at Mobliss, Inc. She started out as a Game Play Counselor at Nintendo of America where she also had her first experience with product testing. Since then, she has worked within Quality Assurance at Humongous Entertainment, Real Networks, and Microsoft Games Studio.

Samantha Ryan is the CEO and President of Monolith Productions, Inc., a division of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which is currently developing Condemned for XBox 360 and F.E.A.R. for PC. Samantha joined the company in September 1998 and has a diverse background in both production and marketing. Her 12 year experience in entertainment marketing encompasses projects for Infinity Broadcasting, the Singapore Broadcast Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, and Frito-Lay. She was also the Producer for Monolith's acclaimed No One Lives Forever series.

Jen Sward trained to be an Electrical Engineer at the University of California, Davis. Her career kicked off as a programmer and project manager specializing in fiber optics and satellite communications for the Navy. That experience quickly paled and Jen left to work for the next 15 years in the video game industry as a manager, project leader, producer and designer at companies such as LucasArts Entertainment and Westwood Studios. She is currently the chair of the Game Software Design and Production department at DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington, where she instructs in the Bachelor of Science for Real-Time Interactive Simulation program. Jen’s resume also includes designer of educational toys for children, murals and faux finish painter, helicopter landing pad painter, phone Tarot Card reader, tourist photographer and catering assistant. Her favorite summer job was working in the trail stables in Yosemite Valley.

Kiki has been in the game industry for 8 years beginning her career in post-production and FMV creation. She has been at Microsoft Game Studios (and all its former incarnations) since 1998 starting as an Art Lead on PC games. She has been Art Director for all of MGS’s racing titles including the Project Gotham Racing and Rallisport Challenge franchises; while in the Racing studio she was also a key force behind the building of the Forza Motorsport internal development effort. Kiki is now responsible for the art and audio functions in Studio RX which handles such franchises as Gotham, Fable, Rise of Nations, and a series of unannounced titles.