Peter Whalen
About Peter Whalen
Peter Whalen is a Game Director at Riot Games, currently leading the Teamfight Tactics project. He has an extensive background in game design, having held various positions at Blizzard Entertainment and experience in operations research at Amazon.
Current Role at Riot Games
Peter Whalen serves as the Game Director for Teamfight Tactics at Riot Games. He has held this position since 2022, contributing to the development and strategic direction of the game. His role involves overseeing game design, balancing gameplay mechanics, and enhancing player experience.
Previous Experience at Blizzard Entertainment
Whalen has extensive experience at Blizzard Entertainment, where he held multiple roles over several years. He worked as a Game Designer from 2015 to 2016, then progressed to Senior Game Designer II from 2018 to 2019. He served as Principal Game Designer from 2019 to 2022, and briefly as Game Director in 2022 for two months. His tenure at Blizzard spanned various aspects of game development.
Academic Background
Peter Whalen studied at Princeton University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Mathematics from 2004 to 2008. He furthered his education at the Georgia Institute of Technology, achieving a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization from 2009 to 2014. His academic background supports his analytical approach to game design.
Experience at Amazon and Elysium Digital LLC
Whalen worked as an Operations Research Scientist at Amazon from 2014 to 2015, where he focused on data analysis and optimization strategies. Prior to that, he was a Computer Scientist at Elysium Digital LLC from 2008 to 2009. These roles contributed to his technical expertise in problem-solving and system design.