Christopher Weaver
Founder, Bethesda Softworks

An MIT-trained scientist who inspired Jeff Goldblum’s character in the box-office hit Independence Day, Christopher Weaver founded Bethesda Softworks as an experiment in 1986. Today, the studio has proven his experiment, becoming one of the most prosperous developers in the video-game industry.

For nearly 20 years, Bethesda Softworks has produced the best-selling series of fantasy role-playing games The Elder Scrolls, which was created by Weaver and Julian Lefay. Skyrim, the fifth game in the series, was released in 2011 to universal acclaim. Before then, the company was one of the most innovative startups of the time.

Bethesda Softworks launched with the most physically realistic football game ever made, Gridiron, which provided the technical foundation for the Madden NFL series, later unveiled by Electronic Arts. In 1990, the studio released The Terminator, which was the first game based on James Cameron’s famous science-fiction franchise.