Chris Cocks became President of Wizards of the Coast in June 2016, before which he served as Vice President of OEM Technical Sales at Microsoft. We sat down with Chris to talk about his origin story, the future of digital Magic, and plenty of other fun topics. We wanted to know, just who is Chris Cocks?

This is part one of a three-part series, covering his childhood, experience with the fantasy genre, and how he came to be President of Wizards of the Coast. Part two will be published on Thursday and will cover MTG Arena and the future of digital Magic products. Finally, part three on Friday will discuss the future of Organized Play, wrap-up the remaining interview topics, and provide the full transcript.

It All Started With Dungeons and Dragons

So where does Chris’s love of all things nerdy come from, and what makes him qualified to be running one of the world’s premiere fantasy game companies? Chris explains, “My first Wizards product that I started playing was a Dungeons and Dragons game, probably around the age of 10 or 11. I remember I picked it up at a buddy’s house who lived a couple streets down and his big brother taught us the game and that was my first real experience with a fantasy game and the fantasy genre and I was hooked.”

“They also introduced me to one of my favorite authors. The Sword of Shannara was one of the first books I picked up after learning how to play D&D. We actually had Terry Brooks out here to talk to our company a couple months ago. So I started off with D&D in like 1983, when I was 10 or 11. I picked up Avalon Hill games a couple years later when I was 12 or 13. My first game there was Axis & Allies and I loved strategy games and quickly then picked up Conquest of the Empire, Fortess America, you name it.”

Gaming unleashed Chris’s creative abilities and gave him an outlet in which to concentrate them. He was inspired to create his own RPGs and toys, and even pitched Kenner Toys when he was 13. Little did he know that learning the game would end up being the first step of his journey to becoming the President of Wizards of the Coast, the company that made D&D.

Years later, while he was a Junior at Harvard, Chris heard about another Wizards product, a game called Magic: the Gathering. “I think the first card set that I bought was the Fourth Edition,” he said. “I remember picking it up with a buddy of mine in Newbury Comics in Cambridge and played…for several years.”

But then, for Christmas 1998, Chris’ wife bought him Baldur’s Gate. Chris was so enamored with the game that it inspired him to change careers—after working an uninspiring job in healthcare, he realized that “I’ve got to get into an industry I have passion for. And a nine months later, I ended up at Microsoft, working initially in the PC games team, but within a couple months they splintered off a couple of us and we formed the core for the first party games team for Xbox.”

Rediscovering Magic

Chris rose through the ranks at Microsoft, eventually becoming the Vice President of OEM Technical Sales. “I picked up Magic again, I think in 2011 or 2012 with Duels of the Planeswalkers. I started playing paper Magic again when my son turned eight and he was playing Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh and I didn’t really understand the rules and didn’t want to learn them,” Chris said of his return to Wizards’ flagship product. “It was like, OK, let me teach you the game that I learned and I think you’ll think this is cool. He and I have been playing ever since.”

The growth of the game and the emergence of a new wave of young Magic players combined with players like himself rekindling their love of the game is not lost on Chris. “It’s interesting because Magic is starting to actually become multi-generational,” Chris says as he’s clearly excited.

“Guys like us, who started playing in the 90’s and early 2000’s, we’re starting to have kids and the kids are starting to get to the age where they are into the game as well. It’s fun to see people get back into it and I think we’ll see a lot of that this year with the 25th Anniversary and some of the things we have planned.”

Wizards Comes Knocking

In 2015, Chris was approached by a recruiter. “Hey, I’ve got this job,” the recruiter said, “And I think it’s your dream job. You should come and have lunch with me.”

When he heard the job was with Wizards of the Coast, the company that made both Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering, two games that had had major impacts on his childhood and career choices, he jumped at the opportunity. “Being able to work on a set of brands that meant so much to me, not just as a player but who helped to develop me as a person…Gosh, there was no greater honor than be able to do that. So it was an easy decision.”

Chris joined Wizards of the Coast as President a year later. In the year-and-a-half since Chris has taken over the reins he’s learned and accomplished quite a bit. Chris provides one example, “You’ve already seen some of the impacts of some of those people decisions and some of those leadership decisions. One of the best examples is the Play Design Team under Dan Burdick.”

The biggest challenge going forwards, for Chris and Wizards of the Coast, is bringing in the right people to get the job done. Tomorrow, in part two of our interview, we’ll talk about the work Chris has done to grow the company and the biggest mark he’s made so far: Magic Digital Next. On Friday we’ll talk about Chris’s thoughts on the future of Organized Play.

The interview from which this article draws upon was conducted by Rich Stein and Zac Clark. David McCoy also contributed to this article.