Staff Profiles
Meet the people who make the games!
Jimmie Bragdon, IT Manager
Updated July 27, 2017
Over two decades ago, I joined the Network branch of the Consipiracy under the guise of Illuminati Online and began my foray into helpdesks, network administration, and [REDACTED]. Since then, I've been through the back rooms and data centers of businesses, telecom companies, and even a major computer manufacturer (where the iDomination initiative is going quite well). I've since returned to the home office to patch myself into the heart of the Network once again.
In my free time, I enjoy a pretty wide range of gaming interests. I enjoy roleplaying games, from the periodic pen-and-paper game, to the online MMO. I'm also a fan of any number of board games, non-collectible card games, and lightweight miniatures games. Outside of gaming, I do on and off-stage work in local theater, and am on the board of directors of The Baron's Men troupe.
Eric Dow, Facilities Manager
Updated September 18, 2012
Eric's gaming addiction started back in 1982, with his first pocket box edition of Ogre. From there, it was all downhill. Car Wars, Star Fleet Battles, anything with the Avalon Hill name on it, Dungeons and Dragons . . . well, you get the idea. Later, he discovered that cars could be used for more than just dueling in arenas, and even set a long distance driving record.
When not in the office, Eric can be found playing in his Friendly Local Game Store, or under the hood of a friend's car trying to fix something that may or may not be broken.
Alex Fernandez, Senior Production Artist
Updated October 26, 2008
Alex like to draw pictures. Alex no like word things.
Alex like lizards and monkeys. Some of Alex art here.
Sabrina Gonzalez, Production Manager
Updated December 2, 2014
Sabrina's brain prefers to keep around less useful information like song lyrics instead of things like where she placed her cellphone last. Sometimes her dog keeps tabs on where all the missing things go.
Andrew Hackard, Munchkin Line Editor
Updated January 8, 2009
Andrew's first experience with roleplaying games was taking a first-level magic-user into the Caves of Chaos armed only with a dagger and a detect magic spell. This experience taught him valuable lessons about resource allocation, spell selection, and rolling up new characters. Since then, he has learned a lot, making him ideally suited to oversee the continuing growth of the Munchkin juggernaut. In his previous lives, Andrew has been a project manager, the managing editor for a major game publisher, a frustrated graduate student, and a high-school teacher, where he learned more about munchkinry from his students than in any activity before or since.
Andrew's non-gaming interests include watching movies at the Alamo Drafthouse, watching TV at the Alamo Drafthouse, and watching his paychecks disappear at the Alamo Drafthouse. In his free time, Andrew wants to eat your brains.
Steve Jackson, President, Editor-in-Chief
Updated October 31, 2008
Steve Jackson founded the company in 1980, so it's all his fault. Blame him.
Steve has also designed way too many games, including Ogre, Car Wars, Illuminati, GURPS, and Munchkin. He wants to do some more. Thus, gaming no longer counts as a hobby, though it's still a Favorite Thing. His actual hobbies include Lego, pirates, tropical fish, rolling ball machines, and gardening. He really wishes he could still find the time for beekeeping, model railroading, and keeping up with videogames . . . and in his weaker moments he misses the SCA. If only we could do something about this sleep thing . . .
He is a carnivore, specializing in sashimi. Mmm, sashimi. A few years ago, he broke a 30-year 3-liter-a-day Coke addiction. Now it's two cups of coffee a day. This is better, honest. He drinks sissy drinks and Kahlua. He reads science fiction and fantasy. Did we mention that he games?
You can find his personal website here.
Ross Jepson, Director of Sales
Updated December 16, 2010
Ross Jepson started in the games industry in 1979 working part time at the Sentry Box, a retail store, and then TD Imports Inc., a Canadian hobby distributor, in Calgary, Alberta. In 1981, he took over operations of TD Imports and ran it full time until he sold it in May of 1999 and went to work for Steve Jackson Games as Director of Sales. Today, Ross is both the Director of Sales for Steve Jackson Games as well as the Director of Hobby Sales for PSI. In his spare time, Ross enjoys cycling, backpacking, historical miniatures gaming, board wargaming, and the study of military history.
Steven Marsh, Warehouse 23 Digital Manager, Pyramid Editor
Updated October 29, 2008
Steven Marsh has been a gamer since he was 13, when his newly generated Dungeons & Dragons magic-user – creatively named Zappo Zam – happened to roll all 18s during character creation.
Although his blatant cheating tapered off once puberty kicked in, Steven's love of gaming continued until he went to college at Florida State University. While there, he worked at a comic and game shop, resulting in a truly frightening collection of comics and games. His break in the creative aspect of gaming came in 1997, when a letter he wrote to Shadis Magazine detailing his theoretical "perfect" issue was turned into the "Special Steven Marsh Issue." He wrote a couple of articles for Shadis, and in 2000 he joined the Steve Jackson Games family as the editor of Pyramid Magazine. Since then, he's done work for Green Ronin Publishing, West End Games, Grey Ghost Games, White Wolf Publishing, and others. In 2008 he took over as e23 Manager for Steve Jackson Games, where he parlayed the skills he honed during his Pyramid years into a full-time job.
In between editing Pyramid, managing W23, and writing and editing for freelance gigs as his fancy is struck, he has an unhealthy fascination with Doctor Who, portable video games, and tinkering with computers. He lives just outside Indianapolis with his wife and their son. He sporadically posts to his blog at waitingforgo.livejournal.com. He rarely sleeps.
Brandon McClelland, User Support Technician
Updated May 8, 2012
Brandon vividly recalls playing his first RPG campaign at age 8 with a group of his mother's university friends who often encouraged him to try silly things: quickly leading him to play an ear-less elf after picking a fight with an entire tavern of dwarves. He still remembers repeatedly bugging his uncle to teach him how to play Car Wars. This love of table-top games led to a fascination with miniature collecting and painting in middle school that paralleled his growing interest in computer programming and video games. His current interests also include artificial intelligence programming, circuit bending, making collages, creating music with electronic synthesizers, and wandering around Austin.
Samuel Mitschke, Chief Creative Officer
Updated March 12, 2012
Sam dove headfirst into gaming at a young age, starting with marathon Axis & Allies and Fortress America sessions, to his current Pitchcar and Puzzle Strike obsessions. He's held just about any job you can think of – computer repair, undercover security, food service, textbook editing – until he finally jumped at an opportunity to work for Steve Jackson Games. As Production Manager and Art Director, Sam guides every game through the production process, all while wrangling three stubborn and supremely-talented production artists. Oh, and he's doing package design, too. He dreams of once again getting a full night's sleep.
Sean Punch, GURPS Line Editor
Updated December 16, 2010
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch set out to become a particle physicist in 1985, ended up the GURPS Line Editor in 1995, and has engineered rules for almost every GURPS product since. During the GURPS Third Edition era, he compiled both GURPS Compendium volumes, developed GURPS Lite, wrote GURPS Wizards and GURPS Undead, and edited or revised dozens of other titles. With David Pulver, he produced the GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition, in 2004. His latest creations include GURPS Powers (with Phil Masters), GURPS Martial Arts (with Peter Dell'Orto), and the GURPS Action, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, and GURPS Power-Ups series.
Sean has been a gamer since 1979. His non-gaming interests include cinema, cooking, and wine. He lives in Montréal, Québec with his wife, Bonnie. They're owned by two cats, Banshee and Zephyra. As befits a professional in the RPG business, Sean mixes his work and personal life without a second thought on his LiveJournal.
Philip Reed, Chief Executive Officer
Updated October 14, 2008
Philip Reed is constantly smashing his face against deadlines, which wouldn't be such a terrible thing if deadlines weren't quite so sharp and painful. With credits throughout the game industry as an author, artist, layout monkey, editor, publisher, designer, and playtester, Philip definitely sunk more points into skills than common sense. Philip writes about toys at his blog and annoys as many people as possible through Twitter.
Gabby Ruenes, Production Artist
Updated April 26, 2010
Gabby is a dork. He accepted a position with Steve Jackson Games after realizing he will never achieve his dream of becoming Bruce Campbell's personal assistant / masseur. He enjoys board games and video games, comics and cartoons and all things Bruce Campbell . . . even Man with the Screaming Brain . . . which is awful.
Randy Scheunemann, Operations Manager
Updated May 11, 2017
Randy is a wanderer. He made his way into the office one day, and hasn't managed to fully escape yet.
His job is nebulous and if you are involved in the hobby board game community at all, you have seen him "around".
Randy's gaming interests are varied. A game of Catan is as welcome as a few games of Endeavor, followed by a giant game of Werewolves around the campfire. He has also started to dabble in the world of V.R.
Monica Stephens, Executive Assistant
Updated July 3, 2020
Monica passed in June, 2020 – Daily Illuminator, June 19, 2020
Monica Stephens has worked for SJ Games in every department and at many positions, and has been here longer than anyone but Steve. If you want to hear about hand assembly of games in ziplock bags, or phototypesetting on a Compugraphic system for wax pasteup, or creating a Car Wars-themed van in three days to display at a trade show in Dallas, ask Monica.
Monica enjoys games, but she's spent more time getting games to press than actually playing. She likes playtests, though, and has edited several games. She developed the card game Spooks. She is currently the Assistant Managing Editor and the final gatekeeper of editing and graphic quality for our releases.
She likes nature, water gardening, sudoku, science, science fiction, and SF cons, and would like to spend more time with her sweetie and friends. It is a challenge to get a good candid photo of Monica.
Nikola Vrtis, W23 Digital Editor
Updated April 14, 2014
Nikola Vrtis has been the production artist and indexer for most of the GURPS products published since 2008, as well as helping as an editor and writer. She began her career in the gaming industry at West End Games, where she was the co-designer of the Men in Black Roleplaying Game, co-designer and co-editor of the DC Universe Roleplaying Game and its supplements, and designer and editor of several D6 System books.
Nikki currently resides just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana, with her husband (Steven "Steven" Marsh) and their son, who's been creating new games since he was four.
Ben Williams, Production Artist
Updated October 27, 2008
Taken by a local hillbilly, scientists now believe this blurry image may be the only existing photograph of Ben Williams, the newest production assistant at SJ Games. Though reports are hazy and often contradictory, many suggest this bizarre creature is an avid tabletop miniature gamer and painter. Recent eyewitness accounts indicate that he has lately abandoned Warmachine and Hordes, in favor of the newer Monsterpocalypse. Another individual reported seeing him purchase one of the new Alkemy starters as well. Recent evidence supports earlier hypotheses that his natural habitat is in central Texas in the Austin area.
