Michael Morhaime

Michael Morhaime grew up in the Los Angeles area and purchased his first computer, an Apple II, in his youth, quickly learning to program. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1990. His rigorous engineering background, combined with a lifelong passion for gaming and the collaborative relationships he built at UCLA, prepared him to lead complex, multi-year software development projects.

Michael Morhaime is a billionaire video game executive who co-founded Blizzard Entertainment and guided it into becoming one of the most revered PC game studios in the world. In 1991, Morhaime famously borrowed $15,000 from his grandmother to fund his share of Silicon & Synapse alongside Allen Adham and Frank Pearce. As CEO of Blizzard, Morhaime cultivated a company culture obsessed with extreme polish, famously delaying games for years until they met the studio's exacting standards. Under his leadership, Blizzard launched genre-defining massive hits including StarCraft, Diablo, and the cultural phenomenon World of Warcraft, which generated billions in subscription revenue. He served as CEO until 2018, maintaining fierce loyalty from the PC gaming community before stepping down.