Phil Spencer (business executive)

Phil Spencer
Born December 11, 1969
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Washington
Occupation Head of Xbox

Phil Spencer is an American business executive. He is currently the head of Xbox and leads the global creative and engineering teams responsible for gaming at Microsoft, including the Xbox One console family of devices, accessories, Xbox Live service and the gaming experiences and content.

A 28-year veteran of Microsoft, and an avid gamer, Spencer has been with Xbox from the beginning.

Personal life

Spencer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington and currently serves on the boards of the First Tee of Greater Seattle and the Entertainment Software Association.[1]

Career

Spencer joined Microsoft in 1988 as an intern and has worked in a number of technical roles, leading the development of Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles (such as Encarta), development manager for Microsoft Money, and general manager of Microsoft's online and offline consumer productivity products including Microsoft Works and Microsoft Picture It! [1][2]

Spencer served as general manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA, working with Microsoft's European developers and studios such as Lionhead Studios and Rare Ltd. until 2008, when he became the general manager of Microsoft Studios, eventually becoming the studio's corporate vice president a year later.[2][3] He has participated in Microsoft's E3 conferences since 2010.[4][5][6][7]

In late March 2014, Satya Nadella announced in a corporate e-mail that Spencer was to "lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video teams, and Microsoft Studios".[3][8]

Shortly after his appointment, in an interview with Larry Hryb, Spencer stated that there were some "wrong decisions" regarding the direction of the Xbox One and that the console will now focus more on video games instead of general entertainment.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "Phil Spencer". Xbox.com. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  2. 1 2 "Kinect Accelerator Mentor: Phil Spencer". Microsoft. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  3. 1 2 "Welcome Phil Spencer, Microsoft's New Xbox-Everything Honcho". Time. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  4. ↑ "E3 2010: Phil Spencer interview". The Telegraph. 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  5. ↑ "Phil Spencer E3 2011 Interview". G4tv. 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  6. ↑ "E3 2012: Phil Spencer Post-Conference Interview". 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  7. ↑ "E3 2013: Phil Spencer Talks Xbox One Lineup". GameTrailers. 2013-06-10. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  8. ↑ "Satya Nadella email to employees on tuning our organization". Microsoft. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  9. ↑ "Phil Spencer admits Microsoft made 'wrong decisions' with Xbox One and pushes 'gaming first' strategy". The Next Web. 2014-04-04. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
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