Lisa Stevens is an American editor,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and founder of

Paizo Publishing Paizo Inc. (originally Paizo Publishing.) is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing game ''Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder''. The company's name is derived ...

, and

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

of Goblinworks. She began her career in games in the 1980s, working with Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein•Hagen to help produce the tabletop roleplaying game ''Ars Magica''. She later worked at White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast before founding Paizo. She announced her gradual retirement from her role in June 2020.

Education

Stevens attended

Saint Olaf College St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and the Patron Saint Olaf ...

, where she met game designers

Jonathan Tweet Jonathan Tweet (born 1965) is an American game designer who has been involved in the development of the role-playing games ''Ars Magica'', ''Everway'', ''Over the Edge (game), Over the Edge'', ''Talislanta'', the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dra ...

and

Mark Rein-Hagen Mark Rein-Hagen, stylized as Mark Rein•Hagen (born 1964), is an American role-playing, card, video and board game designer best known as the creator of '' Vampire: The Masquerade'' and its associated ''World of Darkness'' games. Along with Jo ...

.Appelcline, Shannon
"History of Game, #10"
3 January 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2013. Stevens received an MBA from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. After graduating, she continued to hang out on campus running '' Dungeons & Dragons'' games.

Career

Stevens joined Tweet and Rein-Hagen in the game company

Lion Rampant The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Christia ...

, which published ''

Ars Magica ''Ars Magica'' is a role-playing game set in 'Mythic Europe' – a historically grounded version of Europe and the Levant around AD 1200, with the added conceit that conceptions of the world prevalent in folklore and institutions of the High Mi ...

'' in 1987. Lion Rampant was a volunteer organization, and Stevens's editorial experience was needed at the company. After Stevens pitched the idea to Rein-Hagen and

Stewart Wieck Stewart Douglas Wieck (May 10, 1968 June 22, 2017) was one of the founders of the publishing company, White Wolf, Inc. He was also one of the original writers of Mage: The Ascension. Career Stewart Wieck was born in Freeport, Illinois in 1968. H ...

, Lion Rampant merged with

White Wolf A white wolf or Arctic wolf is a mammal of the ''Canidae'' family and a subspecies of the gray wolf. It may also refer to: Organizations * White Wolf (band), a Canadian heavy metal band * White Wolf (band), white power oi band from the USA * ...

in 1990. While on the road to GenCon 23 in 1990 with Stevens and Wieck, Rein-Hagen envisioned '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', which the new company published in 1991. After meeting Rich Kaalaas of Wizards of the Coast at a GTS convention in March 1991 and then GenCon 25, Stevens left White Wolf that same year to join Wizards, becoming that company's first full-time employee. She was a vice president for Wizards when they published '' Magic: The Gathering'' in 1993, and she launched '' The Duelist'' to support it. Having worked on the game while at Lion Rampant, she advised Wizards to acquire ''Ars Magica'', which they did in 1994. After Wizards purchased TSR, Stevens became the Brand Manager for the RPGA and

Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''—Dave Arneson ...

. She is also an expert on ''Star Wars'' collectibles, and was the brand manager for Wizards' '' Star Wars Roleplaying Game''. Stevens left Wizards of the Coast in 2000, and made it known that she wanted to acquire the rights to Wizards' magazines if they ever became available. In May 2002, she formed

, and is the CEO of the company. When Wizards' entire magazine department was cut in 2002, ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'', '' Dungeon'', and '' Star Wars Insider'' magazines were all licensed to Paizo. In 2011, Paizo set up a company called GoblinWorks with Stevens as COO to handle the development of '' Pathfinder Online'', a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. On June 15, 2020 Paizo announced she was going to step down from daily operations in preparation for her retirement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Lisa 21st-century American women American women writers Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people St. Olaf College alumni White Wolf game designers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Year of birth missing (living people)