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Print Edition StoriesFriday, January 15, 2010
Turbine CEO Crowley takes unique path to game development
By Rodney H. Brown
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In their own words: Jim Crowley, CEO, Turbine Inc.
Jim Crowley
Position: CEO, Turbine Inc.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and economics, Connecticut College, 1986; J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1991
Age: 45
Quote: “The big transformation is that while there will always be stand-alone games, games are now connected to a universe of multiple people.”
Most CEOs at game development companies come up through the programming ranks or are recruited with an MBA in their pocket. Not Jim Crowley. His degrees are in philosophy, economics and, of all things, law.
“I made the decision to go to law school with the belief that I could accomplish anything that someone could do with an MBA, but I would be able to do more,” Crowley said.
The path through law school, however, was still always about being a leader in the technology field, Crowley said. And after a stint as a lawyer at Hale and Dorr LLP — now WilmerHale — he went on to help lead two technology startups that had successful exits.
“I joined Hall and Dorr in the early ’90s right when a lot of interesting things started happening in the tech world — both the telecom and Internet bubbles were taking place,” he said.
Crowley is the CEO of Westwood-based Turbine Inc., which makes massively multiplayer online role-playing games, including one of the original MMO games, Asheron’s Call, as well as a pair based on probably the two most recognizable fantasy franchises in the world — Lord of the Rings Online, based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dungeons & Dragons Online, based on the famous dice-and-paper game that ruined many a college student’s academic career.
Crowley came by the skills needed to run a company as complicated as Turbine the way many people did in the go-go high-tech world of the 1990s: on-the-job training.
When he was working as an attorney at Hale and Dorr his friend Rob Hale recruited him to be the chief operating officer of a small telecom startup, Network Plus Corp.
“That grew to be a $300 million-plus company and was publicly traded,” Crowley said.
At its peak, the company employed about 1,300 people. It was sold to Broadview Networks for $15 million after the bursting of the telecom bubble in 2000 caused it to file for bankruptcy.
Crowley called his tenure there a great learning experience.
“There was a bunch of crazy young people who said, ‘Lets build this company and see where it would go,’” Crowley said.
One thing Crowley learned was the value of building a great team, a lesson that came easily to a man with eight siblings, he said. He took that and other lessons to his next role, COO of mobile startup m-Qube Inc.
“The m-Qube story is a wonderful story,” Crowley said. “That became the fastest-growing company in New England and was sold to VeriSign for $250 million.”
After m-Qube sold in 2006, Crowley found himself in the venture capital world for a short time, as entrepreneur in residence at Highland Capital Partners. Highland was one of the companies that gave Turbine its first VC funds in 2003 along with Polaris Venture Partners. By 2007 Turbine had taken in $48 million over two rounds — the company has now ratcheted that up to about $94 million over four rounds — and added backers Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital. In late 2007 Crowley was brought on board as CEO of Turbine, replacing Jeff Anderson, who had been CEO since 2001.
Crowley said he came on as the nearly 300-employee company was making a shift from simply a game developer to a company focused on “EAS or entertainment as a service.” He noted games used to be just boxed items sold on store shelves back in 1994 when Turbine was founded in Rhode Island as Turbine Entertainment Software Inc.
“The big transformation is that while there will always be stand-alone games, games are now connected to a universe of multiple people,” he said.
The challenge of dealing with all of the elements necessary to keeping such a company thriving was very enticing to Crowley, who said his whole tech career has been about that kind of challenge.
If anyone knows how capable Crowley is of meeting such challenges, it is former m-Qube CEO Jeffrey Glass, who is now a venture partner at Bain Capital in Boston.
“Jim is a world-class executive,” said Glass of his former co-worker. “He is an amazing team builder. He is a workaholic. He has incredible loyalty to his team, to his investors and to his customers.”
Crowley, whose wife, Brigitta, is secretary for the Appalachian Mountain Club, has three small children, so his own gaming time is limited, he said
.
“Mostly I play with my children, so I have more time on Club Penguin or LEGO Indiana Jones than I do with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”
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