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KYLE WARD
President
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Kyle Ward leads the vision and overall strategic direction for Step Evolution. He works closely with clients and internal team members to foster a culture of innovation. Kyle is extremely passionate and always makes it a top priority to keep extraordinary standards towards every development detail.
Prior to Step Evolution, Kyle worked with several community reaction based projects such as: Dance With Intensity, Flash Flash Revolution and StepMania. Kyle’s music productions and content authoring is considered a staple among these respective user community driven portals globally.
It is community driven projects like Stepmania that led Ward to Roxor Games in 2003 to help produce and manage content for the In The Groove dance game series. After managing and contributing content towards Roxor Games sequel, ITG2 (in 2004), Playmeter magazine recognized In The Groove 2 as the highest earning arcade dance title ever produced. Because of market demand, National and World tournaments using the In The Groove software quickly spread.
After the success of the ITG series In 2006, development of Pump It Up Pro with collaboration from Fun In Motion and Andamiro USA began. During the development cycle of PIUPRO, Ward continued to help support ITG communities and Pump It Up Pro events with collaboration with his coworker Chris Foy.
In the 2008, Kyle announced his leave from the Pump It Up Pro and children based title “Pump It Up Jump” to help develop, improve and collaborate with Swedish based company Positive Gaming. It was here that Ward provided several key innovations and interface additions to Positive Gaming’s iDance2 software. iDANCE 2 is an innovative exergame product connecting up to 32 players on wireless dance platforms, while encouraging a social dance game experience for all ages. iDance2 continues to be targeted towards schools, gyms and fitness centers globally.
In addition to helping produce dance reaction titles, Ward actively co-producers Europop band, Oscillator X. OSX has been featured on several dance outlets and holds an eleven week #1 title with their hit “Dynamo” on Seattle based dance station, KNHC C89.5. Recently, Abercrombie and Fitch licensed OSX songs: “The Naughty Song” & “Have A Good Time.” These songs (and others) can be heard in retail stores internationally.
Ward enjoys turning dreams and visions into something new and innovative for users to enjoy. Seeing people engaged and having fun is one of his true driving forces. His attention to detail, love for work and dedicated global followers, continue to contribute to much of his success.
Kyle received his Associate of Applied Arts degree for Video Production from the Art Institute of Seattle in 2003. |
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CHRIS FOY
Chief Executive Officer |
Chris Foy provides Step Evolution with intuition and entrepreneurial energy. He works closely with design details, spec sheets, events, and coordination with our internal team members by ensuring product quality and compelling interactive experiences for end users.
Chris began his career in music and reaction based games in 1999 by playing, and shortly later creating his own game content. Foy acknowledges his 10 years of classical percussion training in aiding his efforts in design. Prior to Step Evolution, Chris went on to work for Roxor, Fun in Motion, Andamiro, and Positive Gaming; first as a content designer, and later as a team leader. Some, but not all, of the series he worked on are: Step Mania, In The Groove, Pump it Up Pro, and iDance.
Foy enjoys spending time working with distributors, helping end customers, running national and world events, and spending time on the sales floor. He has been privileged to have worked with Chris Cotty; President of American Family Fun Centers; Paul Shinners; Founder of Dance Machine for Pulse Fitness; Ed Kasanders and Tommy Seilheimer; President and Vice President of Motion Fitness; Todd Jennings, Taber Sawatzky and Tom Doolie; President, National Sales Managers of Gopher Sport; Bill Masterman; President of Masterman Vending; and Mike Dobias; Founder of Illusionz.
Chris started out his career by earning multiple college degrees: Economics from the University of Washington, Fire Science from Bellevue College (3 credits remaining to graduate) and General Studies from Shoreline Community College. Much, but not all, of this time overlapped with other things he did such as: professional competitive inverted aerial skiing (ranked #1 in WA, ID, OR for 3 years), application compatibility testing at Microsoft, aerial ski show jumping for Dave Valenti’s Extreme Air Team, professional firefighting, E.M.T. (emergency medical technician), clerical work with Office Team, acquired a solo pilot’s permit, ski instructed for children and adults, ski patrolled, coached aerial skiing, O.E.C. Provider (outdoor emergency care), played percussion, and worked on music and reaction based video games. |