Brad Wardell

Wardell graduated from Western Michigan University in 1994 with a degree in Electronic Engineering, specializing in Computer Engineering.

Wardell was involved in the design and implementation of Galactic Civilizations for OS/2, one of the platform's few games. He led development of OS/2 Essentials, followed by Object Desktop, a package of utilities and desktop enhancements.

When the OS/2 market collapsed, he shifted Stardock to Windows, heading development of PC game Entrepreneur, while coordinating the creation of WindowBlinds and other Object Desktop components.

Wardell was an early pioneer of digital distribution of games and software, despite the potential for software piracy. Wardell was an early adopter of digital distribution culminating with the Impulse (software) sales platform. While recognizing copyright infringement as an issue, he felt that efforts to prevent it ended up making software more frustrating for legitimate customers. To this end, Wardell created a "Gamers Bill of Rights," released at PAX 2008. Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor – who was working with Stardock on Demigod at the time – called the bill "an awesome framework for the industry to aspire to." Later, his digital distribution platform, Impulse, was sold to GameStop in 2011.

Wardell designed Galactic Civilizations for Windows and its sequel, which became GameSpy's Game of the Year. He subsequently designed The Political Machine and Elemental, as well as two expansions: (Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor) to Galactic Civilizations II. In the mid 2000s, Wardell continued to focus on the development of artificial intelligence and game mechanics for turn-based strategy games.

In 2012, he was the producer of Elemental: Fallen Enchantress.

In 2013, Stardock announced that it had promoted Derek Paxton to succeed Wardell in the running of Stardock Entertainment in order for Wardell to have more time for other projects. These other projects included co-founding new game studios including Oxide Games and Mohawk Games with Soren Johnson. Wardell's goal was to encourage innovation and empower a new generation of 4X game developers. As part of this endeavor, Wardell founded the Stardock Staffing Company to allow developers and artists to work on projects between a coalition of game studios to provide better job security.