Gilman Louie

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Gilman Louie
Right profile photo of Louie taken on August 1, 2007
Louie in 2008
Born1960 (age 63–64)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
EducationSan Francisco State University (BSBA)
Occupation(s)Venture capitalist, former video game designer
Known forCEO of Spectrum Holobyte, co-founder and CEO of In-Q-Tel

Gilman Louie (born 1960) is an American technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then co-founded and ran the CIA venture capital fund In-Q-Tel.[1] With his company Nexa Corporation he designed and developed multiple computer games such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon flight simulator series. His company later merged with Spectrum Holobyte where he was CEO until its acquisition by Hasbro, after which he became Chief Creative Officer and General Manager of its Games.com group. He has served on a number of boards of directors, including Wizards of the Coast, Niantic, Total Entertainment Network, FASA Interactive, Wickr, Aerospike, the Chinese American International School, Markle Foundation, Digital Promise, and Maxar Technologies. He is chairman of the Federation of American Scientists and Vricon.[2][3] He is a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.[4][5]

Early life and education[edit]

Louie was born in San Francisco.[6] He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.[7][8] In 1997, he attended the then thirteen-week Advanced Management Program (AMP) and International Senior Management Program (ISMP) at Harvard Business School.[7]

Career[edit]

Video games[edit]

He built a career in the video game industry, founding a company in 1981 while still in college. He called it NEXA Corporation, based on a department at SFSU that was a combination of the humanities and the sciences. In 1986 his company merged with Spectrum Holobyte via a shell company called Sphere, Inc., with Louie as CEO, and then he became CEO of Spectrum Holobyte in 1992. In 1992 he acquired MicroProse. He designed and developed the F-16 Fighting Falcon flight simulator series (1984–1998). He was also chairman of Spectrum HoloByte when it published Tetris (1987), based on a disputed license. His company was acquired by Hasbro Interactive in 1998, where Louie served as Chief Creative Officer and general manager of the Games.com group.[9]

Venture capital[edit]

In 1999 he co-founded and became the CEO of the non-profit Peleus (later In-Q-It and then In-Q-Tel). It was a company created with $30 million in seed money from the US federal government,[6] and intended to help enhance national security by connecting the United States Intelligence Community with venture-backed entrepreneurial companies and making venture capital style investments in new technologies.

As of 2021, Louie is a partner of Alsop Louie Partners,[1] a venture capital fund focused on helping entrepreneurs start companies. Known investments of Alsop Louie Partners include Niantic, Inc., Wickr, Cleversafe, Ribbit, Zephyr Technologies, Gridspeak, Netwitness, and LookingGlass Cyber Solutions.

Board activities[edit]

Louie has served on a number of boards of directors, including Wizards of the Coast, Total Entertainment Network, Direct Language, FASA Interactive, Netwitness, Motive Medical, Wickr, Gridspeak, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA),[3] Zephyr Technologies, the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation, Aerospike, GreatSchools and the Chinese American International School in San Francisco. He serves on the board of the Markle Foundation and is on the boards of Greatschools.org and Digital Promise. Louie is chairman of the Federation of American Scientists as well as the Mandarin Institute. In September 2015, he was elected Chairman of the Board for a US-based 3D Geospatial Mapping company called Vricon.[2]

Other activities[edit]

In 2018, Louie was appointed to the United States National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence.[10] Gilman served as vice chairman of the standing committee on Technology, Insight-Gauge, Evaluate and Review for the United States National Academies. He also chaired the committee on Forecasting Future Disruptive Technologies for the United States National Academies that produced two reports.[11][12]

In 2009, representing his company Alsop Louie Partners, he sat as a member of the committee for The Symposium on Avoiding Technology Surprise for Tomorrow's Warfighter working alongside Raytheon.[13]

In May 2022, Louie was appointed to serve as a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.[14] In June 2022, he was appointed to serve as a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.[15]

Credits[edit]

Video games designed, programmed and/or produced:

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Alsop-Louie Partners FAQ". Alsop-Louie Partners. Archived from the original on January 12, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Rodriguez, Giovanni. "Meet The VC Who's Betting On A Better World In 3D: Gilman Louie". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  3. ^ a b University of California, Los Angeles, Thirty-Thirty Seminar Series, March 23, 2011 Archived July 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Panelist Biography
  4. ^ "Secretary Blinken Selects Members of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
  5. ^ House, The White (2022-05-04). "President Biden Announces Appointments to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and the National Science Board". The White House. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
  6. ^ a b Van Slambrouck, Paul (January 14, 2000). "The spy who came in from Silicon Valley". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Staff writer (March 29, 2001). "Fact sheet - Gilman Louie". Venture Capital Journal. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  8. ^ "Gilman Louie". Federation Of American Scientists. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  9. ^ Public Affairs Office (April 24, 2007). "A few among many notable San Francisco State University alumni". San Francisco State University. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  10. ^ Shead, Sam. "Ex-Google CEO To Lead US Government AI Advisory Group". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  11. ^ Persistent Forecasting of Disrupive Technologies, Report 1 of 2, The United States National Academies Press, 2009.
  12. ^ Persistent Forecasting of Disruptive Technologies, Report 2 of 2, The United States National Academies Press, 2010.
  13. ^ Report for The Symposium on Avoiding Technology Surprise for Tomorrow's Warfighter, The United States National Academies Press, 2009.
  14. ^ "President Biden Announces Appointments to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and the National Science Board". The White House. 2022-05-04. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  15. ^ "Secretary Blinken Selects Members of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2023-09-19.

External links[edit]

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