Sarah Bond believes gaming has the facility to attach us all

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For the previous president of Xbox, video games have all the time been about connection.

Sarah Bond is certainly one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of girls who’ve made a big affect of their communities and past. Meet this yr’s honorees right here.

REDMOND, Washington – Sarah Bond fondly remembers sitting subsequent to her father enjoying King’s Quest II – fixing puzzles, navigating mazes and unlocking doorways – all in an effort to rescue the attractive maiden, Princess Valanice, from captivity.

At age 6, Bond had no thought the place these mazes would take her, what was behind these doorways in actual life. How her video adventures within the land of Kolyma would land her in a entrance workplace at Xbox as the primary Black girl to helm a significant world gaming platform earlier than stepping away from the corporate on Feb. 20.

“I was completely a gamer growing up,” Bond, 47, instructed USA TODAY in an interview in January. “My dad was a massive gamer, so it was one of the things that we would do to spend time together. It was a big part of how we connected.”

It grew to become formative in how she sees gaming — as a strategy to share experiences and achievements with others who might not seem like you, might not communicate your language, might not stay in the identical nation as you. And she got down to make that inclusive view of the world a actuality.

Charting her personal course

Unlike the basic path of coder‑turned‑studio‑head, Bond landed the highest job based mostly on her expertise in technique and deal‑making—abilities she discovered as a advisor a McKinsey & Company and several other years at T-Mobile, the place she served as chief of workers to former CEO John Legere. She joined Microsoft in 2017, serving as a company vice chairman answerable for product and expertise for recreation creators, and was named president of Xbox in 2023.

“I always loved consumer tech,” Bond says. At Yale, STEM and enterprise programs referred to as her identify. She then earned a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard. After commencement, “I decided, ‘I’m going to go into consumer tech.’ I really love the intersection of the fast pace of technology with the ability to really touch consumers’ experience. And at the time, people actually said to me, ‘Hey, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.’”

It was the early 2000s. “We didn’t have an iPhone yet,” Bond says. “Facebook wasn’t an IPO.” But she stuck with it. “I never explicitly thought about gaming.” she says. “I was more thinking about just impacting technology.

“And that’s when it hit me that actually where I started was with gaming, that that was a big part of my experience growing up, but that I never had the opportunity to participate in it from the business perspective,” she continues. “So as soon as I saw the opportunity, it sort of clicked in my mind, like, ‘I’m going to jump into this with two feet.’”

Many saw her appointment as a breath of fresh air. Nearly 3 billion people play video games every day globally, making it an estimated $522.45 billion industry. As many as 52% of gamers in the U.S. are women, according to 2025 Global Video Games report by Entertainment Software Association.

And yet only 5% of more than 60 gaming companies have women in leadership roles, and just 12% of leaders come from diverse backgrounds, according to a report by the financial tech company Xsolla.

Bond’s background uniquely ready her to interrupt the proverbial glass ceiling. “I spent most of my life in positions where I didn’t necessarily fit in,” she says. “I’m a woman who has always worked in environments that are male dominated. I’ve lived in different places around the world. I’m a Black woman, who’s often been in spaces where that’s not the majority of people there, where most people are White.”

“I used to find that very isolating earlier in my career,” she continues. “I realized at some point that it was really unlikely that I was ever going to run into someone who was just like me. But because of the variety of experiences I’ve had, because of the perspectives that I’ve been exposed to, it was all the more likely that I would have something in common with everyone I meet, and that I should focus on that.

“So instead of seeing it as a weight, I see it as an opportunity to build bridges, more shared understanding, more advancement in how we look at the world,” she says. “And I get a lot of energy from that.”

At Xbox, she channeled that vitality into serving to the model transition past the gaming console to an “everywhere” strategy, as cloud gaming grew. She spearheaded Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and championed inclusion throughout the {industry}.

“I think my secret superpower is seeing patterns in the noise. White spaces and pockets of opportunity that others don’t see,” she says. “True systems that help unlock opportunities and set direction to help teams really punch through and do things that are new.”

Always transferring, all the time studying

The skill to thrive in new environments is one thing she discovered rising up. Bond’s household – she’s certainly one of seven kids – moved 5 instances earlier than she was 10. Her father labored in telecom, and in these days workers moved the place their jobs dictated. New Jersey. Colorado. Massachusetts. And then at 10, Bond headed abroad to boarding college in England.

She didn’t know what was subsequent, however she knew extra was on the horizon – extra mazes to navigate, extra puzzles to resolve, extra doorways to be unlocked.

She credit her dad and mom for her curiosity and dedication. “They always instilled in me a sense that I controlled my outcomes, that my effort was what really led to my growth. That it was totally okay to try something and not be perfect the first time in,” she says. “I think that’s one of the things my dad was trying to teach me when we’re playing games. Frankly, it’s a great training ground for it because you can be playing a game, you’re on the first level, you die, right?

“But you don’t really die,” she continues, “because you come back and then you try again and you get a little further and a little further and a little further, and you realize that if you keep trying and if you put the effort in, you’re suddenly able to do things that when you first started, you could never do.”

So is game night a thing with her own kids? Oh, yes.

Her daughter, 14, and son, 11, are both gamers. It’s reminiscent of the time Bond spent with her father.

“The beautiful thing that I discovered is that gaming is really unique relative to pretty much anything else you can do in the technology industry, and that it does this beautiful blend of art and science,” she stated. “There’s experiences that people can have in games that they couldn’t have otherwise.” Before her subsequent large position, it is most likely secure to wager that she’ll take pleasure in some down time. Her husband has been a keep at residence dad, and earlier than her Xbox departure was introduced, she stated she’d prefer to swap jobs with him for a day. “You know the way your youngsters will solely speak about their day proper once they get within the automobile? I need to be that individual within the automobile,” she told USA TODAY. There will also likely be some time for a few other favorites. “Bridgerto”n is a guilty pleasure. “Having grown up in England, I like the English references, and it is simply so stunning and so decadent and all the time such a joyful and enjoyable story,” she says. And books are a lifetime love: “The alternative to simply get by way of a pair extra books a yr? If I had an additional hour within the day, I might positively take that.”

She helped the brand new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, settle into the position over the course of some weeks. Another bridge, from one girl to a different.

“Creating opportunities for other people and then seeing them succeed,” she says, “That’s just the best. It’s the best.”

Suzette Hackney is a nationwide columnist. Reach her on X:@suzyscribe