The Game Changer: How Raven Software’s Brian Raffel Built an Empire

“I got to a point where it became too hard to do the creative work and run the company. I started to realize: My game is the business side of things.”

— Brian Raffel

In 1992, the Middleton High School boys’ cross-country team won the Wisconsin State Championship. However, it was a bittersweet victory for Brian Raffel, the team’s coach. It would be his last before walking away from a successful teaching career and into his garage, where he hoped to build a video game company with his brother Steve.

Three decades later, as Raffel continues to lead as Studio Head of Raven Software, his proverbial gym banners trumpet a legacy of extraordinary wins:

• Growing his company to 350+ employees
• Shepherding a multimillion-dollar acquisition by Activision in 1997 (which was recently acquired by Microsoft for $68.7 billion)
• Helping launch Activision’s China operations
• Pioneering an estimated $180 billion industry
• Advocating for state legislation aimed at transforming “The Badger State” into a gaming industry hub

A 2023 Vistage Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Raffel credits much of his company’s stratospheric success to two things: not knowing anything about business when he started out and learning along the way from his peers and invaluable speakers at Vistage.

“I don’t think we would have survived if we hadn’t joined Vistage,” he says. “It opened my eyes to how to do interviews, how to build culture. Every speaker they bring in, you pick up 2 or 3 gems — and I’ve probably heard 200 speakers over the years.”

A ‘Call to Duty’

Raffel joined Vistage at his mentor’s and attorney’s urging 20 years ago. A time of great opportunity followed, particularly when Activision brought the studio in to contribute to its tentpole “Call of Duty” series in 2010.

To prove to Activision that they had the chops to do “Call of Duty” work, they were given a chance to create new content for the franchise.

“I knew that our whole future depended on this opportunity,” Raffel says. “We did an amazing level, which opened doors for us. But knowing when to pivot, how to think through each new opportunity and have the tools at the ready — if I hadn’t gone to Vistage, I would have been flying blind.”

Video games, like blockbuster movies, rely on collaboration from a phalanx of talented studios. In 2019, under the kind of pressure a player might face in the middle of a “double-front war zone,” Raffel decided to grow his team and split it into 2 groups: 125 people would work with the sister studio Treyarch on “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War,” and another approximately 125 would collaborate with the developer Infinity Ward on “Call of Duty: Warzone.”

Discover how Raven Software leveraged Vistage leadership development to create and maintain long-term success.

Incredible success followed — “Call of Duty: Warzone” alone surpassed 50 million downloads in its first month — and Raven emerged as a key figure among the 8 studios that contribute to the popular series. Along the way, Raven also served as a powerhouse behind titles for Marvel, Star Wars and Star Trek.

As Raven has grown, so too has Raffel. He leaned into culture-building and vision, propelling Raven through COVID-19 and workforce growing pains.

“Vistage showed me that there’s incredible value to putting money into a training budget,” he says.

Leveling Up with Vistage Leadership Development

Raven now sponsors 7 members in Vistage Leadership Development Programs, and Raffel is proud of his tight, well-oiled team. To further nurture future workers, Raffel is collaborating with the University of Wisconsin to create an ecosystem that will keep talented individuals in the state.

Once he’s done rallying for Wisconsin, Raffel is considering someday going back to his roots as a coach — but for business leaders this time.

“I could see being a Vistage Chair,” he says. “Over the years, I have seen other business leaders succeed because they kept learning, kept evolving.”

Time will tell if Raffel returns to the sidelines to coach new players to victory. But it’s clear his “gym walls” are not completely filled yet. There is still space for new banners and new wins.

This story first appeared in Vistage Perspectives magazine.

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