Jeffrey Steefel

Jeffrey Steefel has been a professional in the Entertainment and Technology industries for almost 20 years, serving as Executive, Director, Head of Production, Principal Designer and Business Strategist for multiple new-media, entertainment and technology organizations ranging from young start-ups to media and technology giant, Sony.

Jeffrey joined Turbine, Inc in early 2004 and is currently the Executive Producer in charge of the upcoming MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online’, launching in 2006. LOTRO will be the first and only online persistent world based directly on the literary works of J.R.R Tolkien and will host a world-wide community of fans and gamers.

Prior to joining Turbine, as VP, Programming & Member Services for There, Inc, Jeffrey helped to create the first successful online 3D virtual environment tailored for Mainstream Consumers. Jeffrey supervised the creation and operation of customer service, community development, and in-world programming teams in preparation for launch of the consumer online service, managed Member Services and content programming for a large-scale persistent Public Beta community, and then the successful conversion to a persistent online multi-player pay-service. he service was home to a community that enjoyed over 3MM minutes of organized member activities/month (Games, Talk-shows, Social Gatherings, Quests, Races, etc.), with an average member online session in excess of 3.5 hours. His teams developed an online community with over 3000 active member clubs with larger clubs of over 500 members each, and over 170 independent, member-created websites on the world wide web, including 3 fully member-staffed online There news organizations (lifeinthere.com, thereuniverse.com).

As VP, Programming & Production for Sony Online Entertainment, Jeffrey headed digital studios in Los Angeles and New York, supervising a production, programming and development staff of 120 personnel for SOE's premier game site, The [email protected], helping to manage the growth of that service from 3MM members to over 7MM and to grow "casual" monthly usage on The Station to >1MM hrs/mo. Jeffrey supervised the launch and operation of many online franchises including JEOPARDY! Online’, Wheel of Fortune Online’, Trivial Pursuit Online’, and subsequent variant services like Rock ‘n Roll JEOPARDY! Online’ with VH1, and Sports JEOPARDY! Online’ with ESPN. He also helped to initiate pilot game services for Interactive Television, Wireless and Broadband distribution, developing business relationships with Columbia Tri-Star Television, MTV, RealNetworks, VH1, ESPN, Hasbro, and LucasArts, among others.

Before Sony, Jeffrey served for over four years as producer, designer and Executive for 7th Level, a young and growing multimedia software and enabling technology company. As Vice President of Production, Mr. Steefel was responsible for product development, creating over a dozen award-winning interactive products for online and CD-ROM. Shipped games include: Tamagotchi©, Return to Krondor, Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, Monty Python’s Complete Waste of Time, Battle Beast’, Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Ace Ventura’ Pet Detective, The Universe According to Virgil Reality, Fun on Imagination Island©, Barney’s Undersea Adventure©, Barney Goes to the Farm©, Barney Goes to the Circus©, The Lil Howie Adventure Series and Timon & Pumbaa’s Jungle Games.

He helped develop and manage most of the company’s most critical strategic partnerships including IBM, Disney, Morgan Creek Pictures, Microsoft, Bandai Corporation, Python Pictures and Lyric Studios. He also co-developed and implemented the company’s production and design processes, developing and managing a 120-person digital production studio, and working closely with systems and software engineers in the creation of proprietary technologies.

Before embarking on his career in the computer gaming industry, Jeffrey Steefel worked as an actor and singer. In 1988, he performed off-Broadway in New York as Jesus in Godspell, and was reviewed in the New York Times. Soon after, he moved to the west coast and became an ensemble member of the Colony Theater Company in Burbank.