
MARCUS LEHTO
A 20+ year veteran of AAA games and co-creator of the Halo universe, Marcus founded V1 Interactive - a studio filled with passionate and talented developers dedicated to making great high quality games. When not making games, Marcus can be found hiking through the mountains or motorcycling off into the horizon.

MIKE GUTMANN
A 20+ year veteran of AAA games, Mike held a number of studio leadership positions at Zipper Interactive, best known as the creators of the “SOCOM US Navy Seals” franchise. Mike is an avid cyclist and family man.

RAJEEV NATTAM
A 17-year veteran of AAA games, Raj has been creating amazing art for games like Halo, Destiny, Ratchet, Resistance, and Oddworld. From vehicles, to characters, to environments, Raj tackles it all with an enthusiasm that lights up our studio.

LEE WILSON
A thoughtful and creative narrative designer with 20+ years experience solving problems visually in print, films and games. In front of the camera or behind it, using real or virtual tools, Lee is passionate about story and applying his experience to help deliver it to the audience in the most compelling way possible.

JOE ARROYO
A DigiPen alumnus who graduated summa cum laude. While winning multiple student awards with his collegiate game-team over multiple projects he also managed to hold down a band, a gaming-centric podcast, and raise a pair of pugs.

LIANNE CRUZ
Animator
With 10+ years in the game industry, Lianne has worked on projects ranging from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim to inFamous: Second Son. Her favorite parts of animation in games are the collaborative and technical aspects that always present interesting and fulfilling challenges. When not animating you can find her drawing, biking, snowboarding, or exploring the PNW with her husband and dog.

MATT BENNIER
Environment Artist
With over a decade of experience on AAA titles and prior work in multimedia, animation, and architecture, Matt honed his passion for world building as a proven environment artist building the Halo and Destiny universes. Matt can be found with his family, spending time outdoors, indulging his MOBA habits, researching new tech, and ever slowly but surely working on his sci-fi novels.

RACHEL THOMPSON
Office Manager
A natural at building up teams and maintaining high morale, organization, and efficiency. Rachel honed these skills working in higher education, specializing in professional communication and networking in the game industry. Often doing yoga at her desk, she also waxes poetic about the gazillion hours she's put into Stardew Valley, or about her rescue border collie/lab obsession.

SCOTT SHEPHERD
3D/Tech Artist
An 18+ year veteran, Scott has lived and breathed character design, development, and technology for AAA games. He has shipped everything from fantasy MMO’s to survival horror to the epic first person shooters of Halo and Destiny. When not staring at a computer screen you can find him hugging wild animals or exploring the remote places of the Pacific Northwest.

CJ HEINE
Designer
CJ has been working in game design for 15+ years. Starting at Zipper Interactive, he worked on various 3rd and 1st person shooters before heading to Disney to work on F2P RPGs. He's a family man who enjoys Legos, burritos, beer, and of course, gaming in his spare time. Conversely, he does NOT enjoy heights or spiders. Especially spiders.

JULIA LI
3D Artist
Julia graduated with an art degree in China and jumped right into the game industry. She's had the pleasure of working on EVE Online, Mirror's Edge, Blade & Soul, among others. She has had the opportunity to help train young artists as they break into the industry. Her last job in China was at CCP Games Shanghai working on Dust 514. She specializes in hard surface characters, vehicles, and weapons. After coming off a contract position at Bungie, she's excited to be at V1. Julia enjoys painting, reading, and watching movies. She also loves cats!

JOE ERSKINE
A zealot for collaboration, Joe strives to facilitate the talents of the creative folks around him. If he's not spending time with his family, he's hosting a podcast or playing games. Kansan by birth, New Yorker by default, and Washingtonian by choice.

NIKK GOLESH
An Air Force veteran and Green Bay Packers fan, he entered into game development after moving to the Seattle area where he attended the DigiPen Institute of Technology and graduated with honors. When he's not upgrading his skills for his EVE: Online character, he's thinking about ice cream or cheese.

BLAKE LOW
Environment Artist
After 15+ years of AAA game creation, 9 of them spent creating Bungie titles like Halo and Destiny, Blake finds himself here at V1. It's not entirely known what exactly he does here. Some say he is sharpening his online shopping skills. Others say he's trying to organize a full-contact Cornhole league. No one can be quite sure, but he seems to be enjoying himself.

CONNOR HOLLIS
A graduate of DigiPen with a passion for game development and tools. A short stint at Microsoft encouraged him to revisit his game developer roots. If he's not programming or prototyping you're guaranteed to find him playing DotA or Counter-Strike.

MICAH ZAHM
Technical Artist
Micah has been in game development for the past 6 years, helping ship Guild Wars 2, Destiny and Destiny 2. He explores the grey areas between art and game engine technology, working on tools to get artists across that gap with minimal trouble. In his free time you can find him out exploring the PNW, cooking, or at home working on his own art.

KEITH LEIKER
Designer
A DigiPen alum, with a tumultuous background as a 3D artist, graphic designer, teacher, and IT guy. He has worked as a game designer at Disney on F2P Marvel games, and various contract projects. Keith loves games in all forms, learning about other cultures (especially through food), and reading. A lot.

JACK MENHORN
A 10+ year industry vet, Jack has worked on a variety of indie titles as a composer and sound designer. Jack also makes mostly-listenable music as ORA HEAVY INDUSTRY. When he isn't making game audio or engaging with the audio community online via DesigningSound.org; Jack is typically spending time with his fianceé and cats.

RICK LESLEY
Rick joined the industry in 2010. Most recently shipping Hob, and Shadow of Mordor before that. A design generalist, he loves all aspects of game design, from PvP maps to mission scripting. In his free time, Rick can be found hiking in the PNW, bouldering at a rock climbing gym, and honing his photograpy. He also has a pretty rad dog named Rufus, inspired by Final Fantasy 7.

CHUCK MARTIN
Engineer
Chuck has been working in games for nearly a decade, with a brief culinary school and restaurant interlude. At work he's passionate about enabling content creators to make something fun, but most of the time he probably just wishes he was baking bread.

MIKE BUELTERMAN
Environment Artist
Mike started in the games industry back in 2003 at Volition working on The Punisher and Saints Row, then moved on to Bungie in 2006 to work on Halo 3 though to Destiny 2 with a focus on PvP. He fancies himself an outdoorsman and daydreams of being there most of the day.

AARON DE LEON
3D Artist
Hailing from the great state of Texas, Aaron attended the Art Institute of Houston and had stints working at Timegate Studios, Crytek, and Illfonic. Eventually he ended up at Bungie working on Destiny and Destiny 2. He builds mechanical creatures in his spare time when not updating his 3D and 2D work. He also likes messing with electronic music, playing games, and watching too many movies.

MATT LEFFERTS
Animator
Matt has over a decade of experience making games, and three times that playing them. He graduated with a BFA in Game Development from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and then moved to Seattle to work at Flagship Studios on a project called Mythos, before then reforming with the team as Runic Games to make the Torchlight games and Hob. When he's not animating, you can probably find him playing Frisbee or making pixel art.

PAUL BECKER
I.T.
Paul is a polished IT professional with 12 years of experience, possessing a very wide scope of IT and Operational expertise. Before V1, Paul honed his skills consuming tech and hardware at Zipper Interactive and Turn 10 Studios. In his free time, Paul can be found out on the golf course moving turf or looking for a pickup basketball game. Paul also has a pretty cool diabetic cat who has claimed lordship over his lands...

MARK EATON
FX Artist
Mark has been a visual effects artist for 10+ years. He studied animation in college then began his career in out-sourcing and took part in many well-known AAA titles. Thereafter he worked at 2K Marin, and most recently Motiga; shipping Gigantic. When not enthusiastically blowing stuff up, Mark can be found at home with his family, happily enjoying the farm life.

BEN RODGERS
Designer
Ben studied interactive design and game development at SCAD and began his career as a game artist. For the past 10 years, he has been at a number of studios as a level and/ or systems designer, most recently at Wargaming.net. Ben likes to create emergent gameplay and the technical aspects of system design. When he's not in front of a computer, he's with his wife and two dogs in the nearby wilderness.

























