Who is Bradley Wardell?

Brad Wardell is the founder of Stardock. Stardock is a hobby that...got out of hand.

Brad is best known for his work on user experience software such as Object Desktop, Fences, Groupy, Start8, WindowBlinds, DesktopX and more which he helps develop in his role as President of Stardock Software. Brad wears another hat as the President of Stardock Entertainment where he has been designing and developing games for over 25 years starting with Galactic Civilizations and most recently on Ashes of the Singularity and Star Control: Origins.

More recently, Brad has been working with amazingly talented people (people far more talented than he is) and co-founded Oxide Interactive, Mohawk Games, Mothership Entertainment, EdgeRunner and others where he has held positions ranging from CEO to President to Vice President depending on how he can help in his goal to “play it forward”.

Brad is also infamously opinionated on a wide range of topics. For instance, Brad has a special place in his gnarled heart for gamers. When copy protection was getting out of hand, Brad wrote the Gamers Bill of Rights and used Stardock’s Impulse digital distribution platform to help enforce these rights to discourage developers from treating gamers as thieves. Brad’s unapologetic support of gamers has also hurt his reputation in certain circles due to his support of #GamerGate’s stated goals of increasing transparency in game journalism, an area he feels has become excessively politicized. His views can be read here.

Over the past 25 years, he built the company from being a one-man endeavor out of his college dorm room to a company with over 100 employees today. He has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Nightly Business Report, CNN, MSNBC, Time, US News, The Detroit Free Press, Cranes and elsewhere for his entrepreneurial and business/technical skills. Mr. Wardell continues to be active in software development, designing and/or coding on most of the key Stardock programs.

Mr. Wardell's other activities include being a, Author (Elemental), Microsoft MVP, podcaster and featured columnist. Wardell has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Western Michigan University.

Hobbies: Bee-keeping, developing and blogging.

Interests: History, technology, biology, games.

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