Dr. Steve Arnold serves as an advisor or board member to several nonprofit organizations, startup companies and venture firms that share his interest in human development and education. In addition to being an advisor to Playbl, he is co-founder and vice chairman of the George Lucas Educational Foundation and chairs the boards of Enlearn and Healthy Minds Innovations. He also serves on the boards of The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and The New Mexico School of the Arts, and chairs the advisory council of Angela Duckworth’s Character Lab.
Steve spent over 35 years as an executive and investor in digital media and technology-related companies. He was vice president and general manager of Lucasfilm Games and Lucasfilm Learning and president and CEO of Continuum Productions (which became Corbis), founded by Bill Gates to pioneer interactive digital libraries. He was then vice president of Broadband Media Applications at Microsoft Corporation. Subsequently, he co-founded Polaris Partners, a venture capital and growth equity firm investing in digital media, e-commerce, communications, internet, software, and life sciences, among other domains. He is now a Partner Emeritus with that firm.
Steve’s educational background includes a B.S in Psychology (1972) from Macalester College in St Paul, MN, and an M.A. in Comparative Psychology (1974) and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology (1977) from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.