Board of Directors

Rick Loomis

President

Rick Loomis is the founder and president of Flying Buffalo Inc (the oldest Adventure Game company still under its original management) which was the first game company to commercially run play-by-mail games. Rick also was the first person ever to buy a computer (in 1972) solely to play games on it! He also wrote the first solo adventure for a role playing game (Buffalo Castle for Tunnels & Trolls) and designed all of the expansion sets for the popular Nuclear War card game (Nuclear Escalation, Nuclear Proliferation, and Weapons of Mass Destruction).

He was GAMA's first president, second treasurer, president again from 1996 to 2002, and returns as president this year. Rick was elected to the Origins Hall of Fame in 1989.

E-Mail: president@gama.org

Jamie Chambers

Vice President

Jamie Chambers has been involved in hobby gaming since he first played Dungeons & Dragons back in 1982. Before graduating high school he became a volunteer for TSR’s first online community, leading toward eventual employment in the game industry. Jamie began working for Sovereign Press in 2001 as a games editor but within two years was promoted to Vice President and oversaw the Sovereign Stone and Dragonlance game lines. In 2005 he co-founded startup publisher Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd., writing and designing the Serenity Role Playing Game. He is looking forward to the upcoming release of the Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game, based on the popular television series.

Jamie has written and designed for his companies, Sovereign Press and Margaret Weis Productions, along with Wizards of the Coast, Elmore Productions, and Fast Forward Entertainment. He has received the Origins Award and the EN World Award for his role playing game designs. In addition to games, he has published fiction with Wizards of the Coast and is currently completing a novel for the Dragonlance line.

In early 2007 Jamie was appointed to fill the seat left vacant by GAMA’s Vice President, Marcus King.

E-Mail: vp@gama.org

Brian Dalrymple

Secretary

GAMA Secretary Brian Dalrymple owns Dragon's Lair Games, a retail store serving the South Florida area. He got his start in the adventure games industry working part-time at the Compleat Strategist store in Davie, Florida, while going to college.

In 1988, his former boss opened Dragon's Lair Games on a shoestring budget, and made Brian his manager. In 2002, Brian returned to retail, finally purchasing the store he had tried unsuccessfully to get years earlier.

Brian is also a freelance writer and cartographer, and contributed to products from Paradigm Concepts, United Playtest, and Mayfair Games. He served GAMA for many years, first as a Director on the Retail Division Board, and as Vice Chair of the GRD for three years, before serving as an At-Large Director on the GAMA Board of Directors. Brian was GAMA Wholesale Division Chair for two years. Last year he was appointed to fill the seat left vacant by GAMA's Secretary, and was reelected to that position at Origins.

Brian has the honor of being the only person elected to office in GAMA by the association's retail, wholesale, and manufacturer members.

E-Mail: secretary@gama.org

Aaron Witten

Treasurer

Aaron is the General Manager of the family-owned Gamestation.net and QPI, Inc., in Leitchfield, Kentucky. He’s also a licensed broker, securities principal, and insurance agent.

His education includes a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry from Western Kentucky University (1998), with a minor in music. He served as president of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity while at WKU, and was the Founder & Chairperson of “Drums on the Hill” Professional Drum & Bugle Corps competition at WKU from 1998-2001.

In 1996, he co-founded the first internet service in Grayson County, and was honored with a Kentucky Colonel award that same year. He’s actively involved in the Lions Club and the First Baptist Church. He also teaches Biology as a part-time volunteer at the Leitchfield Christian Academy.

He lives in Leitchfield, Kentucky, with his wife, Laura, and son, Luke.

E-Mail: wittena@gama.org

Brad McWilliams

GAMA Wholesale Division Chair

Bio to come.

E-Mail: wholesalers@gama.org

Kelli Wallace

Retail Division Director at Large

Biography and image to come! 

E-Mail: retailers@gama.org

Phil Lacefield

Director-At-Large

Phil Lacefield Jr. has been an active sales manager, marketing guru, writer, line editor, designer and layout guy for game companies such as Agents of Gaming, US Playing Card Co., Journeyman Press, Score Entertainment and Reaper Miniatures. In 2001 (against the advice of his therapist) he founded Sacred Cheese Productions in order to consult on issues of sales and marketing to game companies big and small. SCP also runs the legendary Origins-To-GenCon caravan every year.

In February of 2006, Phil took the plunge and moved to Seattle to take up the mantle of Sales Manager for Paizo Publishing, much to the chagrin of the existing staff there. Now safely ensconced in his mountain hideaway, Phil continues to obsess over his precious Saab collection, dote on his precious tropical fish tanks and insists on wearing a full kilt on random occasions.

Will Niebling

Director-At-Large

Will Niebling started gaming in the golden days of Avalon Hill and SPI. When the original Dungeons and Dragons was released, he eagerly joined in. He attended the very first Origins convention—and every one since—as well as countless other domestic and international game shows.

A graduate of the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, Will began working part-time for TSR in the mid-70s and helped tackle the original Dungeon Masters Guide. In 1979 he became the Executive Vice President of TSR Sales and Marketing, as well as Convention Director. He was instrumental in bulding TSR from a small publishing house to the adventure games powerhouse that it became in the 1980s.

After leaving TSR, Will continued to be active in the game industry. He’s been involved in nearly every aspect of the businessm from game design, development, and publishing, to sales and distribution. Will worked as a game trade consultant to Random House, Berkley Publishing, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Capital City Distribution. He also represented or directed programs for a number of game companies, including, Grenadier Miniatures, Wizards of the Coast, Koplow, and Mayfair Games, to name a few.

Will has previously served on the board of directors of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) for nine years, and continues to act as the GAMA International Liaison. In this role, he built or facilitated the game import and export programs for a host of firms, both foreign and domestic.

In 1997, Will was the center of a group of people that took over Mayfair Games. Today, he is back in Ann Arbor and serving as Mayfair’s CEO. He also continues to work closely with Koplow Games on a variety of dice and game-related projects.

Besides his love of games, his other passions include his wonderful wife Schar, spending time with his two kids (Michelle and William), and The University of Michigan Wolverines.

E-Mail: NieblingW@gama.org

Michael Stackpole

Director-At-Large 

Mike graduated from the University of Vermont, where there is lots of snow shoveling to be done, in 1979 with a BA in History. Having already sold his first gaming project to Flying Buffalo Inc. in 1977, he headed west to the land of Mexican food, where it seldom snows, and the snow never lasts long enough to be shoveled.He lived in Arizona ever since, save for a four month stint in Hartford, working as a consultant for Coleco Industries.

Mike is a member of GAMA's Academy of Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame, a multiple Origins Award winner, and a celebrated, award-winning Author. Mike also heads GAMA's Industry Watch Committee.

E-Mail: stackpolem@gama.org

Joe Hauck

Director-at-Large

Biography and image to come! 

E-Mail: hauckj@gama.org