Name Bill Stealey | ||
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Education United States Air Force Academy Organizations founded MicroProse, IEntertainment Network, Interactive Magic | ||
Bill stealey co founder of microprose software
John Wilbur "Wild Bill" Stealey Sr. (born 1947) is a former United States Air Force officer and the current CEO of iEntertainment Network.
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Biography
Colonel Stealey is a graduate United States Air Force Academy in Aeronautical Engineering (1970) and of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Masters of Business Administration. He also earned one of only 100 four year national ROTC scholarships as a high school senior and attended Pennsylvania Military College for one year before attending the United States Air Force Academy. Stealey went to Undergraduate Pilot Training in Lubbock, Texas, and after graduating was asked to stay as an Instructor Pilot in T-37 aircraft. After his IP duties where done, and having two children in Lubbock, Stealey move to C-5A piloting at Dover AFB, Delaware.
From Dover, Stealey decided to leave the Air Force to go to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to receive his MBA. After graduation from Wharton, where he was also flying O-2A and A-37B Aircraft for the PA ANG, as a forward air controller, Stealey took a consulting job in NYC with Cresap, McCormich, and Paget consulting firm. Stealey also worked for US Lines in NYC as Executive Assistant the Chairman and later CFO of the East Coast Division of US Lines. Stealey left US Lines to join McKinsey and Co. in their NYC offices.
Stealey left NY to take a job with General Instrument as their Director of Strategic Planning for their Systems and Service Division in Hunt Valley MD. There he met Sid Meier and co-founded his first game company, MicroProse Software. As CEO he grew the company to over $43 million in annual sales, taking MicroProse Software public in 1991, and selling to a Kleiner Perkins company, Spectrum HoloByte.
Stealey also served on the Board of the Association of Graduates of the United States Air Force Academy for four years as the Treasurer of the organization. He is listed as a notable graduate of USAFA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Air_Force_Academy_alumni#Businesspeople
Stealey started game software company, Interactive Magic in 1995, took it public in 1998, and sold to a private equity firm in 1999. After that firm was not able to find another buyer, and let the company go into debt and almost close, Stealey and a few Young President Organization friends and investors took control of the company and renamed it iEntertainment Network.
Stealey acquired publisher Tapstar Interactive in May 2016, bringing in very experienced younger game management into IENT with a strategy of using Media Partnerships and Roll UP acquisitions to grow IENT, which is still a public company on the OTC Bulletin Boards as IENT.
Stealey has raised funds from investors, has cleaned balance sheets, grown revenues, and is moving toward full public trading for IENT he states.
New products from IENT include WarBirds 2017, Bow Hunter 2017, WarBirds Fighter Pilot Academy, Europe 1939-1945, mobile game for iOS devices, and coming soon, Valiant Puzzle Warriors and Spell Slots.
The Company has announced its Media Partnership Strategy with partnering with Valiant Entertainment, the third largest Comic book company in the US and expects to release its first Valiant themed game in the summer of 2017. The company has told investors of other signed media partners but has not divulged the names as of yet.
Stealey owned the Baltimore Spirit of the National Professional Soccer League from the franchise's inception in 1992 until he sold it to Edwin F. Hale, Sr. in 1998.
Next Generation listed Stealey in their "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995" for his roles as former head of MicroProse and then-current head of Interactive Magic. Stealey left the company in 1999, but later returned as CEO in 2002.
An avid aviator, Stealey piloted a North American T-28 Trojan for over 15 years including leading the T-28 formations at the Oshkosh Air Shows every July on a number of years. In 2005, Stealey attended Wake Technical Community College Digital Game Xpo as a guest speaker.
Stealey often speaks to various educational groups from high school, to colleges, to ROTC units on both service to country and entrepreneurship. He was the Key Note Speaker to a group of High School ROTC members in 2013 and one member went on to the USMA.