Ben Sawyer: Getting Serious About Using Video Games to Solve Problems

Occupation: Co-founder of Digitalmill, which provides consulting services to companies in the video-game industry

Charitable venture: Mr. Sawyer is working to turn video games into tools for good, rather than just entertainment. In 2002, he worked with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to create the Serious Games Initiative, which connects people in the video-game industry with organizations that want to create games that help solve problems in areas such as education, health-care, national defense, and corporate management. The effort has helped spawn Serious Games Summit conferences, Games for Change, and the Games for Health project, which supports the use of games and game technology to improve health care.