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Main milestones
Early Career at Wizards of the Coast (WotC)
Leadership at Goblinworks
Chief Creative Officer and Transition
Pathfinder and Starfinder Development and Impact
Early Life and Education
Community Engagement and Advocacy
Personal Interests and Hobbies
Founding and Leadership of Paizo Publishing
Industry Recognition and Awards
Lisa Stevens is an American editor, CEO and founder of Paizo Publishing, and COO of Goblinworks. She began her career in games in the 1980s, working with Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen to help produce the tabletop roleplaying game Ars Magica. She later worked at White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast before founding Paizo. She announced her gradual retirement from her role in June 2020.
Stevens attended Saint Olaf College, where she met game designers Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen.[1] Stevens received an MBA from the University of Washington.[2] After graduating from St. Olaf, she continued to spend time on campus running Dungeons & Dragons games.[3]: 232
Stevens joined Tweet and Rein-Hagen in the game company Lion Rampant, which published Ars Magica in 1987.[1] Lion Rampant started as a volunteer organization, and they needed Stevens to volunteer at the company for her editorial experience.[3]: 232 Stevens pitched the idea of a merger to Rein-Hagen and Stewart Wieck,[3]: 235 and as a result Lion Rampant merged with White Wolf in 1990.[2] While on the road to GenCon 23 in 1990 with Stevens and Wieck, Rein-Hagen envisioned the ideas for what became Vampire: The Masquerade, which the new company published in 1991.[3]: 216 After meeting Rich Kaalaas of Wizards of the Coast at a GTS convention in March 1991 and then GenCon 25,[3]: 276–277 Stevens left White Wolf that same year to join Wizards,[2] becoming the first full-time employee of the company.[3]: 277 She was a vice president for Wizards when they published Magic: The Gathering in 1993,[4] and she launched The Duelist to support it.[5] With her experience on Ars Magica while at Lion Rampant, she advised Wizards to acquire the game, which they did in January 1994.[3]: 279 After the company purchased TSR, Stevens became the Brand Manager for both the RPGA and Greyhawk.[3]: 282
She is also an expert on Star Wars collectibles,[6] and was the brand manager for Wizards' Star Wars Roleplaying Game.[7]
Stevens left Wizards of the Coast in 2000, and made it known that she wanted to acquire the rights to their magazines if they became available.[3]: 412 In May 2002, she formed Paizo Publishing, and is the CEO of the company.[8][2] Wizards of the Coast cut their entire magazine department in 2002, so they licensed Dragon, Dungeon, and Star Wars Insider magazines to Stevens through Paizo.[3]: 291
In 2011, Paizo set up a company called GoblinWorks with Stevens as COO to handle the development of Pathfinder Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.[9]
On June 15, 2020 Paizo announced that Stevens was going to step down from daily operations in preparation for her retirement.[10]
