The Founding Team
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Luc Barthelet - Chairman of the boardLuc brings 25 years experience with the production of games to Runbot. more…Luc is passionate about engaging communities in developing virtual worlds.
Luc designed and built his own computer when he was 17 and then went on to write software for the Apple ][ and the Macintosh. His first company was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1988 where Luc continued to work for 20 years.
At EA, Luc was VP of Technology, CTO and then General Manager of Maxis where SimCity 3000 and The Sims were developed (among others).
In May 2008, Luc started Tirnua, Inc.
Kitesurfing, Humanoid Robots and Mathematica are also of high interest to Luc.
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Nancy Philippine - President & CEONancy brings 25 years experience with the development of more…Nancy brings 25 years of experience in the development of software and games to Runbot.
As a Senior Director of Development at Electronic Arts, Nancy co-lead internal teams in the production of multi-platform AAA titles such as Tiger Woods, PGA Tour Golf, The Sims2 PC, Godfather.
Prior to this, Nancy led the development of graphics and animation tools to optimize the content creation for a variety of consoles from the Sega Genesis and Nintendo 8 to the 3DO and PlayStation I.
Nancy has an engineering degree in Mechanics and Electricity from E.S.T.P in Paris, where she studied while helping Luc Barthelet in his first venture. After the acquisition of Version Soft by Electronic Arts, Nancy worked for EA for 18 years until April 2006. Since then, she did some management consulting work for Perpetual Entertainment before starting to build the Runbot team.
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Todd Growney -CTO Todd has 13 years of creative engineering on games, more…Todd has 13 years experience developing games and many more playing games.
He shipped more than 10 multi-platform games, with more than half of them recognized as AAA titles such as Tiger Woods, PGA Tour Golf, Godfather, and the Lord of the Rings series.
His solution to the Total Control Swing (TCS) was patented by EA and he got a few publications in the Game Developer Magazine on physics models used in games.
At EA and then Activision, he wrote very advanced visual effect systems used on a variety of games.
Todd is now bringing his inspired ideas to life at Runbot and putting our robots in motion in ways rarely seen before, but on more sophisticated models.
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Mike Thompson -VP of Engineering Mike brings invaluable insights from his previous experience, more…A co-founder of previous successful software and Internet start-ups, Mike brings invaluable insights from his previous experience within the start-up world.
Mike has a deep understanding and enthusiasm for software, electronics and mechanics which make him the perfect match to lead our robot development.
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Carl Steele -Mechanical Design Carl has over 20 years of experience in Computer Aided Design, more…Carl has over 20 years of experience in Computer Aided Design, Manufacturing and Engineering.
For the past 13 years, Carl has managed many of HCR, Inc R&D projects and designed many of their proprietary products.
Carl is bringing exceptional experience and is applying it zealously to the 3D design of our robot.
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Terry Fowler -Hardware Engineering Terry has worked in the electronics industry since 1970, more…Terry has worked in the electronics industry since 1970, and has seen the industry go from transistors to FPGAs containing embedded soft processors.
Terry is a former EA veteran where he designed consumer electronics development systems and testers.
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Marc Thorpe -Creative Design Marc brings a full bucket of creativity to Runbot, more…Marc invented Robot Wars, a new mechanical sport involving mechanical athletes, which set the stage for reality-based build shows on TV.
Prior to that he worked at Lucas Toys / Mattel for 3 years as a senior toy designer, and at ILM for 12 years, creating some of their most impressive special effects, models, creatures and sets.