Paul Thelen

Paul Thelen, Big Fish Games' Founder, Chairman and Chief strategy officer [ [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/big-fish-games-founder-paul/story.aspx?guid=%7B727B9F2A-2B38-4CBB-B4A5-226718126AFA%7D&dist=hppr Big Fish Games Founder Paul Thelen's Keynote Presentation Redefines the Games Industry] ] , has an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington [ [http://www.casualconnect.org/content/visionary/Thelen7-07.html Paul Thelen - State of Advertising] ] . Paul has over 20 years experience working in technology.

Prior to founding Big Fish Games in 2002, Paul worked at RealNetworks as Director of Consumer Marketing, where he helped launch RealArcade, an online game distribution [ [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19554 Big Fish CSO: 'Casual' And 'Hardcore' Insufficient To Define Market] ] platform.

After graduating from the University of Washington in 1985, Paul started his career as a Systems Engineer with the Seattle Marketing and Sales office of IBM. After four years at IBM, Paul left to join a small wholesale food distribution mainframe software developer to start a systems integration division for this small, 12 person company. While at Stanford University, Paul focused his studies on technology and marketing and then entered the world of strategic business consulting for Mercer Management Consulting. At Mercer, Paul worked on developing targeted customer marketing solutions and customer database mining programs for several companies including First Interstate Bank (acquired by Wells Fargo) and Sprint Telecommunications. Acting on his desire to get back into the trenches with a technology company, Paul accepted an offer from RealNetworks. While at RealNetworks, Paul successfully launched RealAudio 3.0 (stereo streaming audio over the Internet) and RealVideo 1.0; wrote the business plan and deployed the successful RealProducer and RealPublisher media editing, compression and deployment tools; and lead strategy for the Media Systems division as Group Product Manager. Paul then moved on to co-found the games business at RealNetworks. Paul wrote the business plan for the RealArcade Service, the RealArcade Client, and the Game Pass Subscription service [ [http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/09/12/focus4.html Thelen worked through illness to launch Big Fish] ] .

Paul's latest venture is Big Fish Games, now the largest portal for downloadable games [ [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008069607_brier24.html Shattering the casual gamer myth] ] in the world, distributing in excess of 1 million games per day, with over 300 employees located in Seattle Washington. Big Fish Games was a bootstrapped startup, founded in 2002 with a mere $10,000 and only recently (2005) accepted a small infusion of investment capital from angel investors [ [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002447906_btinterface22.html Big Fish wants to hook gamers] ] , growing instead by reinvesting profits into new games, distribution services and marketing. ] [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-16137914_ITM Goldman Sachs Managing Director Joins Big Fish] ]

ee also

*Big Fish Games
*Big Fish Studios

References

External links

* [http://www.bigfishgames.com Big Fish Games]