TKO Game Developer

Video games get better, faster and more portable with every release. Learn all about Santa Cruz’s very own game developer, TKO Software Inc. with CEO Jacob Hawley.


Jacob Hawley
Jacob Hawley is the CEO/President of Santa Cruz’s very own computer game developing company TKO Software. Before founding TKO, Mr. Hawley was the vice president of engineering for ASML where he led the development efforts of over 300 engineers in the development of semiconductor fabrication equipment. Prior to that he held the position of vice president of engineering for Celoxica, an EDA & IP company spun out of Oxford University. While at Celoxica, he built an engineering design team and US support office from the ground up. Prior to Celoxica he held the position of director of engineering at Creative Labs, where he managed the integration of Creative Labs audio and graphics technology into every major game engine available in the market. In addition, he was responsible for the custom engineering and corporate engineering departments where he guided the hardware & software architecture of new products, including the wildly successful EMU10K1 “Sound Blaster Live!.” His responsibilities also included coordinating the technical due diligence on M&A activity for the business development team, and he helped negotiate contracts with Microsoft, Intel, and Electronic Arts. He is also credited as an outside programmer on Sony’s enormously popular multiplayer online game, Everquest. Mr. Hawley has contributed as an author and architect to industry standards such as MPEG1 Layer 3 (MP3), USB 1.0, PCI 2.1, OpenAL, and Microsoft DirectX 2-5. As a recognized industry expert, Mr. Hawley has spoken at events such as the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, Intel Developer Forum, Creativity Developers Conference, Audio Engineering Society, COMDEX, and Linux World. Currently, Mr. Hawley sits as an advisor to the board of Treasure Merchant, Inc. and Loangate.com.