Gordon Bellamy
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Gordon P. Bellamy (born November 9, 1970) is an American video game executive. He has over 19 years of experience and leadership in the interactive entertainment industry. Gordon was the executive director of the
International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...
from August 2010 until July 2012.


Childhood

Bellamy was born in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, and raised in
Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and a principal city of both Northern Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Rest ...
. Gordon attended Beauvoir School and Kent Gardens, where he was a member of Shainisville, a 3rd grade gifted and talented class taught by Lara Shainis. Shainisville alumni include
Andy Gavin Andrew Scott Gavin (born June 11, 1970) is an American video game programmer, entrepreneur, and novelist. Gavin co-founded the video game company Naughty Dog with childhood friend Jason Rubin in 1986, which released games including ''Crash Bandi ...
, Gary Shenk, and Sarah Hung Ying. He went on to attend the
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
's
Center for Talented Youth The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is a gifted education program for school-age children founded in 1979 by psychologist Julian Stanley at Johns Hopkins University. It was established as a research study into how academically ad ...
and
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
's
Talent Identification Program The Duke University Talent Identification Program (commonly referred to as "Duke TIP") was a gifted education program based at Duke University. Founded in 1980 as one of the first pre-collegiate studies programs offered by an American university, ...
. In 1984, Gordon was a member of the National Champion Mathcounts Team from
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, who won the inaugural competition. Gordon attended
South Lakes High School South Lakes High School is a public high school in Reston, Virginia, United States. The school serves grades 9-12 for the Fairfax County Public Schools. History South Lakes High School opened in 1978 with grades 7-10. Students in the first 10th-g ...
,
Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...
, the Virginia Governor's Schools Program and St. Paul's School. In 1987, he was chosen to join the prestigious
Research Science Institute The Research Science Institute (RSI) is an international summer research program for high school students. RSI is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) and hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, ...
.


College

Gordon was admitted early and earned a BA degree from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, where he was also a John Harvard scholar and an
AT&T Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several labo ...
Engineering scholar. He wrote sports articles for the ''
Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the college sports teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate Varsity team, varsity sports teams for women and men at Harva ...
'' in 1992.


Games industry

Gordon has spent the past 19 years producing and marketing interactive content, and developing strategic business partnerships with video game publishers, social media developers and technology partners. As an executive consultant for
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
, Bellamy provided creative guidance on the content, direction and strategic marketing partnerships for the annual Spike TV
Video Game Awards Within the video game industry there are several awards that are given to individual video games, development studios, and other individuals to recognize their merit. Most video game awards are given out on an annual basis, celebrating the best g ...
show and the highly rated weekly program GameTrailers TV with
Geoff Keighley Geoff Keighley ( ; born ) is a Canadian video game journalist and television presenter, best known for his role as the host of several video game industry conferences and presentations. He is the executive producer and host of the Game Awards s ...
, also on Spike TV. Previously, he was executive director of the game industry's trade organization, the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...
. Bellamy has also played key business and product development roles at
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 ...
, where he was named the company's Rookie of the Year for his work on the ''
Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football sports video game series developed by EA Orlando for EA Sports. The franchise, named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden, has ...
'' franchise,
THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...
, and
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
subsidiary,
Z-AXIS In geometry, a Cartesian coordinate system (, ) in a plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely by a pair of real numbers called ''coordinates'', which are the signed distances to the point from two fixed perpendicular o ...
. Gordon previously served as chair of the board of the
International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...
and serves as a judge for the Promax/BDA MI6 Awards, which celebrate the best in marketing, advertising and design within interactive and game entertainment. In the Netflix documentary miniseries ''
High Score In video games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties. Most games with score ...
'', Bellamy is interviewed in some detail about his role in having ''
Madden NFL '95 ''Madden NFL 95'' is an American football video game released by Electronic Arts in 1994. In addition to the usual home console versions that were released on the Sega Genesis and Super NES, this edition was also released for the portable Game Ge ...
'' reflect that the NFL had a majority of African American players,. including showing Black players
Erik Williams Erik George Williams (born September 7, 1968) is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens. He played college football at Centr ...
and
Karl Wilson Karl Wendell Wilson (born September 10, 1964) is an American former football defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for eight different teams. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the third round of the 1987 NFL draft. H ...
on the cover, whereas ''
John Madden Football ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football sports video game series developed by EA Orlando for EA Sports. The franchise, named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden, has so ...
'' had depicted all the players as white, partly because the technology at the time made it difficult to show ethnically diverse teams in the game. He also talks about race — "For marginalized people, a lot of energy is devoted to justifying your existence in spaces" — and how being gay alienated him from real-world sports, leading him to sports-based video games.


Personal life

Bellamy is gay and married his husband Joe Heally on May 3, 2014, who he had met in 1998 and become engaged to a decade later; they live together in the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
with their dogs and son. Bellamy played
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
for a gay team, the San Francisco Spikes.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Gordon 1970 births Living people People from Reston, Virginia American video game programmers American video game businesspeople Harvard College alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni The Harvard Crimson people American LGBTQ businesspeople American gay men Gay businessmen LGBTQ video game developers