Gregory Zeschuk CM (born 1969) is a Canadian businessman who worked as a vice president at Electronic Arts and as the general manager at BioWare Austin until 2012. He co-founded the video game company BioWare in Edmonton in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip. All three had earned their medical degrees from the University of Alberta before starting the company. Zeschuk announced his retirement from BioWare on September 18, 2012. He is now involved in several projects related to the craft-beer industry, including the creation of a web-based interview show called "The Beer Diaries." Zeschuk is also the chairman of the board of a smart playground technology startup named Biba Ventures, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
In 2009, he was selected by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time, along with Ray Muzyka.
Early life
Zeschuk was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. As a child, he played many role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, and described them as "always the strongest experience." During his childhood, he spent a summer creating games on his Apple II computer with a group of friends.
Founding of BioWare
Zeschuk went to the University of Alberta to study medicine, where he met other medical students, Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, who worked on medical simulation programs. During their training, the first software they created was called the Acid-Base Simulator. Zeschuk graduated in 1992 and was given a position as a Research Associate in the Division of Studies in Medical Education along with Muzyka. Zeschuk then spent two years training in both the United States and Canada. In 1994, he and Muzyka began working on another medical simulator software called Gastroenterology Patient Simulator. While working on this project, the team found out they were more interested in making video games than medical software. Zeschuk, Muzyka, and Yip combined $100,000 and started creating their first game. BioWare was officially formed on February 1, 1995, in a small room in Zeschuk's basement.
Awards and recognition
On March 27, 2013, Zeschuk received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.
On December 27, 2018, Zeschuk was appointed to the Order of Canada.