Harold Ryan

With over 20 years of games industry success, Harold Ryan has been responsible for generating over $5B of revenue through iconic franchises such as Halo, Destiny, Age of Empires, and MechWarrior. He has held distinguished executive roles including CEO, President and Chairman of the Board at Bungie as well as key positions at Microsoft and with Ensemble Studios and FASA Studios.

Ryan founded ProbablyMonsters to establish a new category of gaming entertainment company, a builder of sustainable game studios that creates and launches original AAA games. He has created a business platform for the ProbablyMonsters family of studios, which provides early stage infrastructure and long-term support in Operations and Business Leadership, Technology, Analytics, Test, and QA, among several other services, empowering their studios to lead their teams and develop games free of distraction. His goal is to foster a people-first culture, where studios can create exceptional games while enjoying a healthy career in a stable environment

As CEO, Ryan leverages his experience from building some of the world’s most influential and successful gaming studios and franchises. He is known for consistently creating exceptional teams and results—both critically and commercially—with scalable tools, efficient process, and an atmosphere of respect and transparency. His entrepreneurial and altruistic spirit have been the inspiration for millions of gamers, positioning him as one of the most acclaimed and sought-after video game executives in the entertainment industry.

Ryan took his first role in gaming in 1998 as a game tester for Microsoft, leading to increased management responsibilities for over 30 game titles across leading studios including FASA Studios, Ensemble Studios, and Bungie. During his tenure at Microsoft, Ryan also established the hardware compatibility team for the games division, building an industry leading standard for OEM and IHV partnerships, and delivering best in-class performance to Windows gamers worldwide.

With increasing leadership roles at Bungie from 2000 through 2016 as the company grew from less than 100 staff to over 600 employees, Ryan led Bungie to become one of the largest and most successful independent game development companies of all time. At Bungie, his credits include the key franchise releases of Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Halo Reach, Bungie.net, and Destiny. Ryan’s tenure at Bungie is an inspiration to millions of gamers and professionals in the industry, with a career beginning in QA and ultimately leading the studio as CEO and President.

Among Ryan’s many achievements, successfully negotiating Bungie’s divestiture from Microsoft in 2007, he demonstrated a vision for a establishing a preeminent independent game development company. To set Bungie on a new path, Ryan secured strategic partnerships with Activision, Sony, and Microsoft for a ten-year horizon securing over a billion dollars in funding and delivering billions more in revenue. Ryan has won multiple awards, including Game of the Year for Destiny in 2015.

A graduate of Washington State University with degrees in Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Mathematics, Ryan lives in Issaquah, Washington. He is an active outdoorsman who’s as comfortable hiking for weeks, building a home, or splitting wood as he is negotiating major deals in the boardroom.