Chris Deering, former President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

My guest today is an American businessman and the former and first president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Chris Deering. Raised in Boston, Massachusetts to immigrant parents, my guest had a strict upbringing.

Despite the disadvantages he faced, he graduated with distinction with a degree in computer science at Boston College, then studied marketing at Harvard Business School. He first worked for the razor-manufacturer Gillette, rising to the rank of head of worldwide shaving, then joined Atari, then Columbia Pictures.

In 1995 he became president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, responsible for launching the company’s first console, the PlayStation, remaining at the company until 2005. “They were,” he once told me, “the best ten years of my life.” 

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