William "Bing" Gordon is a video game executive and technology

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

ist. He served ten years as Chief Creative Officer of video game publisher and developer

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

(EA) prior to his current partnership with

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

(KPCB). He was a founding director of Audible.com and has served on several high-profile Boards of Directors including

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

, Ngmoco,

Duolingo Duolingo, Inc. is an American educational technology company that produces learning Mobile app, apps and provides Language assessment, language certification. Duolingo offers courses on 43 languages, ranging from English language, English, Fre ...

, and

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile an ...

. He designed the video games '' Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'', '' Sid Meier's SimGolf'' and '' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth''.

Career

Gordon graduated from Cranbrook School in 1968. He studied drama and literature and earned a BA from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He moved to the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

where he received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from Stanford in 1978 after acting for a period in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. After working as an account executive at the advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather, Gordon joined EA in 1982 while it was an early-stage start-up, working as a one-person marketing department. As the company grew, Gordon continued to drive marketing strategy and execution. Gordon became more involved on the creative side after a few years, working directly with game teams on concepts, helping to flesh out game designs, and providing feedback on the games as they took shape in development. In 1998 he was named Chief Creative Officer of EA. In 2005, he took a faculty chair position at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division after EA invested in the fledgling program. On April 28, 2008 Gordon announced plans to leave EA to join the venture capital KPCB starting June 2008. Gordon joined the

Board of Directors in 2003 and resigned in 2017.

Awards

Gordon was the recipient of the 2011 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award.

References

External links

Bing Gordon
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

"He's Got Games"
a Bing Gordon profile from ''The Washington Post'' Cranbrook Educational Community alumni Electronic Arts employees Living people Ngmoco Yale University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Amazon (company) people American video game designers Kleiner Perkins people American video game businesspeople Zynga people American venture capitalists Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Stanford University alumni {{videogame-bio-stub