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Management Team
John Welch: President and Chief Executive Officer
Prior to forming PlayFirst, John spent five years at Shockwave.com (now owned by Viacom) as the company's Vice President of Games and Product where he drove the product strategy and acquisitions for the site. John helped build Shockwave.com into one of the Internet's top games portals and discovered some of the top independent game developers in the world. Before Shockwave, John worked at SEGA where he led the specification effort for the Sega Dreamcast Network. He has also served as a steering committee member of the International Game Developers Association's (IGDA) Online Games and Casual Games groups. John launched his career as a systems integration consultant at Andersen Consulting, then co-founded his own firm which specialized in enterprise solutions.
John holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics with Computer Science from MIT and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.
Brad Edelman: Chief Technology Officer
Prior to forming PlayFirst, Brad was a Principal Engineer at Macromedia (now Adobe) where he was a key architect on several of the company's flagship products, including Flash Player, Shockwave Player, Breeze Live, Flash Communication Server and Shockmachine. Brad is also the founder of Uccello Games, a successful game development studio and creator of the critically acclaimed game "Triclops". Additionally, he was a key contributor to Adobe's innovative and award-winning PageMill Web site development software.
Brad holds twelve patents and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kenny Dinkin: Vice President and Creative Director
Prior to joining PlayFirst, Kenny was the worldwide head of product design for The Learning Company/Broderbund, where he was creative lead for a portfolio of premiere children's software brands, including Reader Rabbit, Carmen Sandiego, and KidPix as well as licensed properties such as Scooby-Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, Batman, Powerpuff Girls, and Arthur. A visual artist, writer, musician, game designer, and avid comic book reader, Kenny was also the co-creator of the critically acclaimed, top-selling brand The ClueFinders.
Kenny earned a Bachelor's degree in History from Brown University and an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Design.
Rich Roberts: Vice President of Sales and Business Development
Prior to joining PlayFirst, Rich was Vice President of Digital Distribution at Atari, where he built the digital distribution business for Atari and Hasbro games. His responsibilities included the planning and implementing of Atari's direction into the broadband distribution channels, as well as publishing and distributing new games for the casual online gaming channel. Rich helped propel the casual games industry by establishing a new publishing business for the casual games channel and built new revenue streams for Atari and Hasbro brands through games on demand and download sales programs. Prior to Atari, Rich managed a profitable distribution sales team and directed the launch of over 200 software titles for Simon & Schuster/Macmillan. He has also held sales and account management positions with Berkeley Systems, Alpha Software, WordStar International, and others
Rich holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Stonehill College.
Bruce Sherrod: Vice President of Engineering
Bruce Sherrod has 12 years of experience as a senior technologist in the games industry. As vice president of engineering, Bruce oversees site engineering for PlayFirst's web properties.Prior to his work at PlayFirst, Bruce was a lead architect at Perpetual Entertainment where he authored enterprise server architecture and core game technologies for massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). Previously, Bruce served as a technical lead at The Learning Company where he worked on a wide range of titles such as the strategy game Panzer General 3D and the games in the popular Petz series, Catz IV and Dogz IV.
Bruce holds a MSCS from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Bachelor's of Computer Science and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon.
Brad Simon: Vice President and General Counsel
Prior to PlayFirst, Brad worked as an intellectual property and technology attorney at Thelen, Reid & Priest. Brad joined the pioneering international Internet consulting company Organic, Inc. and became its Senior Counsel where he worked on Organic's IPO, negotiated several multi-million dollar deals with high-profile clients, served on the company's change management team, provided counsel on internet and advertising law, and implemented intellectual property training. As Senior Director of Legal, Business, and Intellectual Property Affairs at AtomShockwave Corp., Brad oversaw the merger of Shockwave.com, Inc. with Atom Corporation (AtomFilms), guided the company in its subsequent restructuring, and performed or supervised others in performing the full range of legal services required by the company.
Brad holds a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law and an L.L.M. from Harvard Law School where he focused on international law and negotiation. Brad holds additional degrees from Brown University (B.A.) and University College London (M.Sc.). He has served on the board of a youth AIDS organization and currently serves on the International Advisory Committee of PIIPA, Inc., a non-profit that provides intellectual property-related legal assistance to groups in developing countries.
Mike Dickey: Chief Financial Officer
Previously, Mike served as CFO for Tablus, Elemental Security, Clarus Systems, Gigabit Optics and Risk Management Solutions. He has held senior financial management positions at Lam Research, Harris Corp. and Maxtor Corp.
Mike holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
Glenn Mulvaney: Vice President of IT Operations
As Vice President of IT Operations, Glenn oversees all aspects of PlayFirst's computing and network operations, including the infrastructure behind PlayFirst's web properties. Glenn has almost 15 years of experience in the games and IT sectorsPrior to his role at PlayFirst, Glenn held positions at Workstream, where he created remote and on-site enterprise software hosting solutions for Fortune 500 financial services clients, and Xtime, where he designed and launched an enterprise software hosting center and on-site application hosting for Fortune 500 clients. Glenn also played an instrumental role at SEGA by designing and deploying the infrastructures for PC and console gaming communities such as Heat.net and the Dreamcast Network.
Glenn attended the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he managed computing resources for two large research labs focused on high-speed networking, computer graphics, and applied robotics.
Board of Directors
The PlayFirst Board of Directors includes the two co-founders, John Welch and Brad Edelman, as well as the following investors and strategic advisors.
Janice Roberts, Managing Director, Mayfield
Janice Roberts is a Managing Director of Mayfield and PlayFirst board member. She is a seasoned venture capitalist with years of experience in operations and marketing. Janice currently serves on the boards of several other venture-backed start-ups, including Aliph, Convedia, MobileWay, Peribit Networks and Ubicom. Prior to joining Mayfield in June 2000, Janice built a successful and synergistic early-stage investment portfolio for 3Com Corp. and led 3Com's Global Marketing and Business Development Operations. She also spearheaded several new business initiatives for 3Com, including its highly successful Palm Computing subsidiary. For more information about Mayfield: www.mayfield.com.
Gus Tai, General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Gus Tai is a General Partner at Trinity Ventures and PlayFirst board member. He currently serves on the Boards of Aventail, Blue Nile (NILE), Modulus Video and Amalfi Semiconductor. In addition to these companies, he was part of the team responsible for Trinity's investments in BackWeb (BWEB), FatBrain (FATB), Invio Software, KIVA Software and Network Alchemy. Prior to joining Trinity, Gus worked at Bain & Company, where he consulted with technology firms on business strategy and new product development. He joined Bain from Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha Microprocessor Division, where he was an engineering and business development manager. For more information about Trinity Ventures: www.trinityventures.com.
Nate Redmond, Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners
Nate Redmond is a Partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, where he focuses on Internet/media and Cleantech. Before joining Rustic Canyon, Mr. Redmond managed investments and advisory work for Professor Clayton Christensen at the Harvard Business School. Previously, Mr. Redmond co-founded an Internet infrastructure company and helped launch two other early web companies. Mr. Redmond began his career with the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant to technology firms on new product development and business strategy. Mr. Redmond received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and holds two degrees (M.S.E. and B.S.E.) from The University of Michigan College of Engineering, where he was an Entrepreneurial Fellow in the Engineering Global Leadership Honors Program. For more information about Rustic Canyon: www.rusticcanyon.com.
Mike Speiser, Vice President of Community Products, Yahoo!
Mike Speiser is Vice President of Community Products at Yahoo! and a PlayFirst board member. At Yahoo! Mike oversees the company's popular communities products, including Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! 360 and Bix. In this role, Mike focuses on helping to foster online communities that offer people a place to interact, discover and share knowledge and passions. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Speiser co-founded and served as president and CEO of social media service, Bix.com (now owned by Yahoo!). Mike also co-founded Epinions.com, one of the first user-generated content sites on the Internet. Previously, Mike has worked as a vice president and technical advisor to Symantec CEO, John Thompson, served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and was an analyst with CS First Boston.
