Charles J. Kroegel Jr.

Chuck Kroegel (born 1952 in Oakland, California) is an American computer game designer. He was an executive for many years with Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), and played a role in developing their position as an industry leader in war games and role-playing games. His career in the games industry now spans almost 25 years.

In the 1970's Kroegel was a school teacher and later an HR manager who enjoyed playing computer war games. He had played games on his TRS-80 computer that had been designed by David Landry and the two corresponded. They decided to found a development studio, Tactical Design Group (TDG). Their first two games, The Battle of Shiloh and Tigers in the Snow, were published by SSI in 1981. TDG created twelve SSI games from 1981 through 1988, the last being Battles of Napoleon.

In 1983 Kroegel left TDG to join SSI, which continued to publish TDG's games. In 1986 he designed Gettysburg: The Turning Point for TDG, although he was an employee of SSI. He ultimately became VP of Product Development for SSI, and later served as President of the company. Kroegel played a role in the creation of the Gold Box Dungeons & Dragons games, and of the first graphical MMORPG, Neverwinter Nights on AOL.

When SSI was acquired by The Software Toolworks (which quickly thereafter became Mindscape) in 1994, Kroegel stayed on and later served as Executive VP and General Manager of the Mindscape Entertainment Division. He also stayed through a series of acquisitions that was to follow: Mindscape by The Learning Company (which also acquired Broderbund), The Learning Company by Mattel, and the spin-off by Mattel to Gores (which occurred after he had left).

Upon leaving SSI in 2000, Kroegel joined EA-owned Westwood Studios, where he was the Chief Operating Officer.

Chuck Kroegel is currently CEO of Las Vegas game developer Petroglyph Games.