Joseph Olin

Joseph Olin General Manager PikPok Colombia
Executive Director, Video Game Bar Association
Professor Game Design, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Joseph programmed his first game after teaching himself BASIC while working as a copywriter on the Coca-Cola account in the 80’s. Since then, Olin has been involved hundreds of titles and interactive products on nearly every consumer game platform launched: from Atari 2600 to PlayStation 5. He’s been fortunate to have served many different development roles in game production and publishing.

Joseph’s primary duties had been split between the Video Game Bar Association as it’s Executive Director since 2013 and leading the videogame efforts at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, an active game consulting practice called – It’s A Secret. Olin was elected as President and then Vice President Treasurer of the Global Game Jam Inc., the organization responsible for the largest game jam in the world that promotes learning how to code via games. As a result of successfully, reviving and then selling a Medellín based game studio, Olin has taken on the responsibilities of General Manager for what is now PikPok Colombia, the first international outpost of New Zealand’s largest game publisher.

Previously, Olin served eight years as the President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences – the games industry’s largest association of accredited professionals. Olin grew Academy membership more than six-fold from 3,000 to 20,000 and rebooted the annual D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, the Interactive Achievements Awards® and the Into the Pixel™ video game art exhibit.

As a precursor to the Academy, Olin spearheaded the launch of gaming’s most famous heroine, Lara Croft, with the launch of the blockbuster Tomb Raider franchise as vice president of sales, marketing and business development for EIDOS Interactive. Olin also served as senior partner and group account director at Ogilvy & Mather where he launched Barbie’s foray into the digital world of web and electronic games. Olin co-created Leonardo’s Multimedia Toolbox, an educational software platform, developed with Gene Portwood & Lauren Elliott (creators of Carmen Sandiego) for NEC of Japan. His background also includes tenure at Philips Media, Microprose and Hasbro Games.

Joseph relocated to Medellín to launch the game program at Bolivariana in 2015 without a word of Spanish and is pleased that he can functionally communicate with his new language. Olin sits on the advisory boards of several digital creative conferences and speaks at many events each year.

Olin earned his Master’s of Science from the University of Southern California.