Robbie Bach - On Creativity

Robbie joined Microsoft in 1988. Over the next twenty-two years, he worked in various marketing and business management roles—including supporting the successful launch and expansion of Microsoft Office. As Chief Xbox Officer, he led the creation and development of the Xbox business, including the launch of the Xbox, and its highly popular successor, Xbox 360, as well as the Xbox Live gaming platform. Then as Microsoft’s President of the Entertainment and Devices Division, he was responsible for the company’s worldwide gaming, music, video, phone, and retail sales businesses until he retired in 2010.
In his current role as a civic engineer, Robbie works with corporate, philanthropic, and civic organizations to help drive positive change in our communities. He guest-lectures extensively at a variety of colleges and universities and speaks to corporate, civic, nonprofit, and trade association audiences across the country. In 2015, he published his first book, Xbox Revisited: A Game Plan for Corporate and Civic Renewal.
He currently chairs the board of the Bipartisan Policy Center and serves on the national board of governors for Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He previously served as a board member of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Sonos Inc., Brooks Running Company, the Space Needle Inc., and Year Up Puget Sound. He is the co-owner of Manini’s, Inc., a gluten-free pasta and baking company.
Robbie was an Arjay Miller Scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned his MBA, and a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, where he earned a degree in economics and was named an Academic All-American on the Tar Heel’s tennis team.
He and his wife, Pauline, reside in Medina, Washington with their yellow lab, Roscoe. They have three grown children and one grandchild. He loves peanut M&Ms, upholding heroic ideals, and those motivated to save the world—although not necessarily in that order. The Wilkes Insurrection (2021) is his first novel.