William M. 'Trip' Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is a Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 and founder of Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

, The 3DO Company

The 3DO Company

The 3DO Company , also known as 3DO , was a video game company...

 and Digital Chocolate

Digital Chocolate

Digital Chocolate is a video game developer headquartered in San Mateo, California. It was founded in 2003 by Trip Hawkins, the entrepreneur and founder of the video game publishing giant Electronic Arts and founder of The 3DO Company. The company focuses on developing games for mobile phones, iOS,...

.

Hawkins was the Director of Strategy and Marketing at Apple Computer

Apple Computer

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

 in 1982 when he left to found Electronic Arts (EA), a video game publisher

Video game publisher

A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....

. Electronic Arts had a successful run for many years under Hawkins' leadership. It was once the world's largest video game publisher and continues to hold the top spot among third-party publishers as of the present day.

Though he remained chair

Chair (official)

The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...

 of the board, Hawkins transitioned from EA in 1991 to form 3DO

The 3DO Company

The 3DO Company , also known as 3DO , was a video game company...

, a video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

 company.