Gabe Newell

Background

Gabe Newell, American businessman, programmer, and co-founder of the video company Valve, was born in Colorado on November 3, 1962. He attended Davis Senior High School in California and furthered his education after high school at Harvard University. In 1983, Newell dropped out of college to begin his career at Microsoft, where he was employed as the head of sales. During his 13 years at the tech company, he helped produce the first three releases of the Windows operating system.

After gaining much experience and learning more about software development at Microsoft, Newell wanted to start his own video game company. In 1996, he and Mike Harrington, who was also a Microsoft employee, left the company to focus on establishing Valve, their own business. By 1998, they developed their first product called “Half-Life,” a first-person shooter game. Two years later, in 2000, Harrington left Valve, with Newell becoming the company’s sole owner. In 2004, he developed “Half-Life 2,” a game that would later win 39 Game of the Year awards.
Meanwhile, Newell worked on Steam, a digital distribution service for games, which became the breakthrough of his company and the most significant source of revenue. In 2010, Newell was named by “Forbes” as ‘A Name You Should Know’ for the development of Steam. By 2011, the distribution platform controlled up to 70% of the market for downloaded P.C. games.

In 2013, as Newell continued to rise in success, he was added to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Within the same year, he received the BAFTA Fellowship award for his contributions to the video game industry. By 2017, he appeared on the “Forbes” list of ‘100 Wealthiest People in the U.S.’