Summary: Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson took a circuitous route to his current job running the world’s leading global interactive entertainment software company. Raised in Geelong, Australia—a blue collar town southwest of Melbourne—Wilson bounced around professionally before landing at EA in 2000. He started on a small surfing game, then ultimately worked his way up through the company. A few years into his tenure he moved to Vancouver to join the EA Sports FIFA development team. “We were I think 19 different nationalities, speaking 20 different languages,” Wilson recalls. “We were like the UN of game development….but we all shared this one love. We shared this love for football. At the time, FIFA was the number two soccer game on the market behind Pro Evolution Soccer and was really struggling. Under Wilson’s leadership, the game broke out and ultimately became what it is today — the largest sports game franchise in the world and one of the biggest annual events in the $80 billion gaming industry. “My life is a series of unbelievable people who looked at me and said ‘yeah, we’ll take a bet on you’,” Wilson recalls, before describing the traits he looks for in young people he’s willing to make a bet on.
