bonnie ross
Bonnie Ross leads the Halo business as general manager of Microsoft’s 343 Industries.

We’ve been steadily adding industry leaders to the agenda for the GeekWire Summit tech conference — including top Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Gurley earlier this week — and today we’re excited to announce another big addition: Bonnie Ross, who oversees Microsoft’s Halo business as the general manager of 343 Industries.

Ross will anchor a panel on the key trends and the future of games at the GeekWire Summit on Sept. 12, sharing insights gleaned from leading the Halo franchise into its new era.

Halo is one of the great success stories of the video game world, originally developed by Bungie and now led by Ross and her team at 343 Industries, an internal Microsoft game studio. In addition to launching a new saga for the core Halo franchise on Xbox, the Microsoft team has expanded the Halo universe to new game styles and devices, including last week’s release of Halo: Spartan Assault for Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

A Microsoft veteran, Ross oversees not just the Halo games but also other aspects of the Halo universe, including merchandise and digital projects related to the Halo titles.

The panel will moderated by industry veteran Ed Fries, a video-game entrepreneur and adviser who originally created and built Microsoft Game Studios. Stay tuned for announcements of more panelists in the weeks ahead, representing a broad cross-section of the video game world.

The GeekWire Summit, taking place Sept. 12 in downtown Seattle, is the premier technology conference in the Pacific Northwest, bringing together engineers, entrepreneurs and business leaders from around the region and the country for conversations at the intersection of business and technology.

Other speakers include HBO CTO Otto Berkes; CreativeLive co-founder Chase Jarvis; Julep CEO Jane Park, Zillow and Expedia co-founder Rich Barton, in addition to Gurley. More details are available on the GeekWire Summit event page. We’ll be announcing additional speakers and panels in the coming weeks, as well as details about the pre-event cocktail party and post-event after party.

This will be fun, informative and empowering event — our biggest of the year. Early-bird prices expire soon, so make sure to get your tickets here or below today.

Thanks to our sponsors for helping to make this event possible: Wave Business SolutionsFirst Tech Federal Credit UnionAppatureMozMightyCallVertaforeUniversity of Washington Professional and Continuing EducationSummit Group SolutionsAvalaraZillow and Davis Wright Tremaine.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.