Shannon is a game developer, industry leader, board member, mentor and coach. She recently retired after nearly 30 years at Microsoft, primarily making games, building teams, and launching platforms. Most recently Shannon was studio head for World’s Edge, Microsoft’s studio focused on all things Age of Empires.
Shannon studied computer science and mathematics at Duke University. She joined Microsoft in 1993 and quickly migrated to the Entertainment Product Unit. Her earliest work focused on the creation of online card-playing games, utilizing the emerging consumer potential of the internet and social game design. Shannon has been responsible for multiplayer games across all of Microsoft’s gaming platforms (console – including Kinect, PC, Hololens, and mobile platforms), including the Madness series (Motocross Madness, Monster Truck Madness, and Midtown Madness), Project Gotham Racing, the Fable series, the Viva Pinata series, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and many others. In total, Shannon has contributed to more than 50 games.
Shannon has created and led many global teams, including games publishing teams, interactive television teams, and internal game development studios (most notably, Good Science, the team responsible for greenlighting and shipping the Kinect with full-motion games and core in 2010). Prior to World’s Edge, Shannon built and ran the Microsoft Studios 1st Party Global Publishing team focused on such AAA franchises as Crackdown, State of Decay, and the Microsoft Casual Suite. In her free time, Shannon enjoys playing video games, running, and travelling with her husband and two sons.
