Who's left or joined Valve in recent history

Barnz

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Some of our followers on our social media profiles requested a list of developers who either left or joined Valve in recent history. The following list covers staff changes between 2016 and 2017. For more detailed descriptions, you can click on associated links under names (if they're available).

Notable departures

You can see the next list for more detailed descriptions of their roles.


notable-departures-2016-2017.jpg


Who left

Ken Birdwell
Senior Engineer
October 1996 - 2016

• Was hired as employee #5
• Worked on the Half-Life series and other titles, including Stars of Blood
• Worked on animation and engine systems, artificial intelligence functions for characters
• Worked on Virtual Reality research and development
• Created Half-Life 2's facial animation system
• Retired from the company on his 20th anniversary

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Marc Laidlaw
Writer, Game Designer
July 1997 - January 2016

• Worked on the Half-Life series as a Writer and Game Designer
• Worked on Dota 2 as a Writer

Biography on Valve's official website
Personal website

Doug Wood
Designer, Animator
August 1997 - January 2016

• Worked on the Half-Life series, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2
• Retired from the company

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

John Cook
Software Developer
July 1998 - January 2016

• Is one of the co-creators of the original Team Fortress
• Worked on Team Fortress 2
• Worked on Steam as a Lead Engineer
• Left the company and joined former Valve developer Chia Chin Lee at BigBox VR

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Josh Weier
Various
November 2000 - May 2016

• Worked on the Half-Life series as a Designer and Programmer
• Worked on F-Stop during the Directed Design Experiments as a Producer
• Worked on Portal 2 as a Project Lead
• In May of 2016, he decided to leave the company

Biography on Valve's official website

Adrian Finol
Software Developer
January 2001 - March 2017

• Worked on popular Half-Life mods, including Front Line Forces
• Moved from Venezuela to join the company
• Worked on the Half-Life series and other titles, including Dota 2

Biography on Valve's official website

Chris Green
Software Developer
September 2004 - June 2017

• Worked on the Half-Life series, Left 4 Dead and Day of Defeat: Source
• Worked on graphics and game technology
• Formed an external team and worked on Deep 6, a Source Engine submarine game

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Chet Faliszek
Writer
December 2004 - May 2017

• Worked on the Half-Life 2 Episodes, the Portal series, the Left 4 Dead series and Team Fortress 2
• Did PR work for games and the company's Virtual Reality efforts

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Erik Wolpaw
Writer
December 2004 - February 2017

• Worked on the Half-Life 2 Episodes, the Portal series, the Left 4 Dead series and Team Fortress 2

Biography on Valve's official website

Christopher Douglass
Various
September 2006 - January 2017

• Started as a Support Employee
• Business Development, Partner Management and Merchandise Development

Resume

Andrea Wicklund
Artist
December 2006 - December 2016

• Worked on the Left 4 Dead series and the Portal series
• Created concept art for Half-Life 2: Episode Three
• Created concept art for Left 4 Dead 3
• Left the company and Co-Founded Half Full, a design company

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Burton Johnsey
Community Developer
November 2007 - January 2017

• Worked as a Volunteer Moderator on the community forums
• Worked as a Community Manager

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Jay Pinkerton
Writer
March 2008 - June 2017

• Worked as a writer on the Portal series, the Left 4 Dead series and Team Fortress 2

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Kristopher Katz
Various
July 2008 - January 2017

• Was originally hired as a Steam Support employee
• Worked as a Designer, Producer and Writer
• Worked on Left 4 Dead 2's Cold Stream DLC, Portal 2, Dota 2 and other titles

Resume

Jacob Masen-Smith
Software Engineer
January 2009 - February 2016

• Started as a Support Employee then worked on Steam and internal tools

Resume

Pieter Wycoff
Engineer
March 2010 - May 2016

• Worked on Steam

Resume

Stefan Landvogt
Senior Engineer
March 2010 - January 2017

• Worked as a Contractor between August 2008 and February 2010
• Worked as a Senior Engineer between March 2010 - January 2017
• Helped release Source Filmmaker
• Developed tools and user interfaces

Biography on Valve's official website
Resume

Jeff Wade
Project Lead
June 2011 - May 2017

• Customer Support Manager

Resume

Quang Pham
Business Developer, Product Manager, and Community Manager
February 2012 - February 2016

• Worked on Half-Life: Opposing Force as a Quality Assurance Tester at Sierra

Resume

Scott Balcerek
Filmmaker
November 2012 - January 2016

• Worked on Free to Play

Resume

Corey Fellows
Software Developer
November 2012 - January 2017

• Worked on the tools for the Customer Support Team

Resume

David Lesperance
Artist
March 2013 - August 2016

• Worked on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Resume

Robert Briscoe
Game Developer
March 2014 - June 2016

• Worked on the remake of Dear Esther, a popular Half-Life 2 mod
• Worked on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the new version of de_nuke

Resume

Alex Hopmann
Software Developer
March 2014 - April 2016

• Worked on Virtual Reality research and development
• Worked on Steam

Resume

Alex Van Gilder
Designer
October 2014 - October 2016

• Created promotional images for Steam

Resume

Zach Barth
Software Engineer
August 2015 - May 2016

• Worked as a Gameplay Programmer and Game Designer
• Worked on The Lab
• Is back to indie video game development

Resume

Hannah Pham
Visual Designer, Illustrator
May 2016 - May 2017

• Created promotional images for Steam

Resume

Evan Luza
Visual Designer, Illustrator
August 2016 - April 2017

• Worked with the company's publishing and marketing teams
• Created promotional images for Steam

Resume

May 2017 departures

• As part of an ongoing restructuring effort, the company has shed some of their support staff
• Those that have left include veterans like Mellissa Sussman

Mellissa Sussman's resume

Who joined

Sheila Sadeghi
Junior Writer
December 2015 - Present

• Previously worked at Blueprint Consulting Services as a Support Employee for Valve
• Working as a Writer on Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and other titles

Resume

Scott Hudziak
Motion Designer
February 2016 - Present

• Previously worked as a Freelancer for various companies

Resume

Erik Peterson
Business Development, Marketing
March 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Nintendo

Resume

Neat Corporation (Company)
Contract
April 2016

• The creators of Budget Cuts
• Were invited to work on Budget Cuts at their offices

Company website

Philip Bryan
Designer
April 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Microsoft as an Industrial Designer

Resume

Eddie Parker
Software Engineer
June 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Microsoft
• Appears to be working on Steam and Virtual Reality research and development

Resume

Thiago Vidotto
Artist
July 2016 - Present

• Previously created items for Dota 2's Workshop

Resume

Jamaal Bradley
Senior Character Animator
March 2007 - November 2009
July 2016 - Present

• Worked at the company in the past
• Returned to the company in July of 2016
• Worked on Team Fortress 2 shorts and the Left 4 Dead series cinematics

Resume

Kameron Rausch
Engineer
August 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Amazon and Microsoft as a Hardware Designer

Resume

Alan Comer
N/A
September 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Cryptozoic Entertainment as a Senior Software Engineer

Resume

Andres Rodriguez
Software Engineer
November 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at AMD as a Software Engineer
• Working on the company's Linux efforts

Resume

Dean Tate
Level Designer
November 2016 - Present

• Worked at Irrational Games on the Bioshock series as a Senior Designer

Personal website
Resume

Joe van den Heuvel
Software Engineer
November 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Microsoft as a Programmer
• Working on Virtual Reality research and development

Resume

Amirali Shojaei
Technical Artist
November 2016 - Present

• Previously worked at Blizzard Entertainment as an Artist

Resume

Tom Francis
Contract
December 2016

• The creator of Gunpoint and Heat Signature
• Was invited to the company to work on Heat Signature at their offices

Personal website

Dante Buckley
Contract
December 2016

• The creator of Onward
• Was invited to the company to work on Onward at their offices

Adil Sardar
Senior Software Engineer
December 2016 - Present

• Working on Steam

Resume

Cami Woodruff
Contract Story Artist
2016 - Present

• Created promotional images for Steam
• Working on a storyboard for a top secret cartoon project for the company

Kerbal Space Program developers
Various
2016 - Present

• Including Jose Palacios and Nathanael Deraney
• This is part of an ongoing research and there may be more developers involved

Jose Palacios's resume

Impulsonic (Company)
Various
January 2017 - Present

• Including Anish Chandak, Clinton Freeman, Lakulish Antani
• Were hired by the company in January of 2017
• Working on audio systems for video games and virtual reality

Anish Chandak's resume
Clinton Freeman's resume
Lakulish Antani's resume

Matt Scott
Animator, Designer
April 2005 - April 2013
February 2017 - Present

• Worked on the Half-Life 2 Episodes, the Left 4 Dead series, Portal 2 and other titles
• Left the industry to open a brewery then worked as an indie video game developer
• Returned to the company in February of 2017

Resume

Brian Keane
Artist
March 2017 - Present

• Previously worked at Microsoft as a CG Supervisor

Resume

Jeff Reitman
Programmer
March 2017 - Present

• Previously worked at Hangar 13 as a Senior Programmer

Resume

David Byrne
Software Engineer
April 2017 - Present

• Previously worked at Terra Technology and Microsoft as an Engineer
• Worked at the company in the past
• Returned to the company in April of 2017
• Working on machine learning, artificial intelligence

Resume

Malcolm Montgomery
Graphic Designer
May 2017 - Present

Resume

Christine Choi
Concept Artist
May 2017 - Present

• Valve artist Ben Huen's wife

Resume

Linux Driver Developers
Contract or full time
Various

• Including Keith Packard, Timothy Arceri, Samuel Pitoiset, Connor Abbott
• Working on Linux graphics drivers and issues

Keith Packard's personal website
Timothy Arceri's resume
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The raw talent that has left valve, breaks my heart.

it's like the core team, the heart of half life itself no longer exists at Valve HQ.

It almost makes one hope that they band together to form their own studio specifically to make a new half life title as they couldn't get that done whilst at valve because the other cooks kept derailing the process.

Well a man can hope :D
 
The raw talent that has left valve, breaks my heart.

it's like the core team, the heart of half life itself no longer exists at Valve HQ.

It almost makes one hope that they band together to form their own studio specifically to make a new half life title as they couldn't get that done whilst at valve because the other cooks kept derailing the process.

Well a man can hope :D
They could get together, announce their plans, and get all the venture & crowd funding they can dream of.
 
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