Louis Castle

Louis Castle is a co-founder of Westwood Studios, currently the CSO for Shuffle Master (SHFL) and former Vice President of Studios at Zynga, CEO of InstantAction and Vice President of Creative Development at Electronic Arts Los Angeles. Louis was the general manager of Westwood Studios from 2000-2003 and served in creative, business and finance roles while growing Westwood from two employees in 1985 to over 250 in 2002. In his creative roles, Louis has contributed as executive producer, creative director, technical director, programmer and artist to over 100 games created by Westwood and EA over the past 23 years including Command & Conquer, The Lord of the Rings-The Battle for Middle earth II, The Lion King, Blade Runner and Monopoly. Louis is one of 8 individuals in his industry to have been honored with the Game Developer Associations lifetime achievement award. Prior to taking the role of Chief Strategy Officer, Louis served as an outside director for Shuffle Master for 6 years on the audit, compensation and governance committees and has chaired the compensation and audit committees. Louis dedicates a good deal of his time and resources to local Philanthropy. He is a trustee for The Meadows School, served 7 years on the board of KNPR, Las Vegas’ public radio station, two years as its chairman, serves or has served on the advisory boards for the UNLV Arts Council, The Andre Agassi foundation, The Nevada Ballet Theatre, The Las Vegas Springs Preserve and the Make a Wish foundation. Louis contributes generously to other cultural services such as The Las Vegas Philharmonic and the UNLV performing arts center and has personally funded an endowed full scholarship for UNLV’s visual arts. He has been honored with the governor’s patron of the arts award, the Association for Fundraising Professionals outstanding philanthropist of the year award and the Nevada Ballet Theatre’s Above and Beyond Award. Through Westwood Studios Louis has contributed a half million dollar visualization lab to the UNLV School of Architecture and a quarter of a million dollar motion capture system to the school of medicine for prosthetic research, in addition to countless contributions to the community in the form of sports team sponsorships and the underwriting of community events. Louis is also dedicated to encouraging the entrepreneurial growth in Las Vegas. He served on the board of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, the executive committee of the Nevada Development Authority, the advisory board of Irwin Union Bank, has been inducted into the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada hall of fame, honored by the Chamber of Commerce as a “Top 40 under 40” twice and received a governor’s award as outstanding Entrepreneur of the year. In addition to his work in entertainment software Louis also owns and oversees boutique clothiers, dry cleaners and a local real estate development company.

Art, digital and otherwise, Science and the evolution of entertainment.

Art direction, Business Management, Finance, Internet Gaming, Programming

David Perry, who's opinion I greatly respect, told me of this amazing conference of brilliant thinkers and extrodinary humanitarians. I attended in 2004 and have been hooked ever since.

Drawing, sculpting and painting