Brian Jarrard
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
- "It was brought to our attention at Bungie that there are lots of fans out here in Asia, and I’ve never been to Singapore. Being based in the states makes us US-centric, so it’s good to be able to travel around and show our support to all the fans out there."
- — Brian Jarrard
Brian Jarrard, aka Sketch or Ske7ch, is the community director at 343 Industries and the former community lead at Bungie.net.[1]
In December 2002, Jarrard applied and interviewed at Microsoft for a community development manager position.[2] He was hired and made Bungie's community and franchise development director in 2003, wherein he was hired by Max Hoberman to serve in this role to replace Hoberman due to Hoberman becoming the lead for the Halo 2 multiplayer component.[1][3]
As the community manager, his job involved wearing a lot of hats, including ensuring the well-being of Bungie at large, being the evangelist and spreading the "Bungie love" to the community. In essence, he acted as the primary conduit between the development team and Bungie's fan base. His responsibility was also in merchandise licensing, ensuring the quality control of Halo action figures, books, and fan-related sites.[citation needed] In 2007, he was made the community, public relations, and marketing director, a position that he held until 2011 when Bungie began work on Destiny and Jarrard realized that he needed a break.[1] He had been employed at Bungie LLC for nearly a decade at this point.[2]
From 2012 to 2014, Jarrard worked at Microsoft as a senior communications director, overseeing executive communications and employee engagement within Xbox.[1] He was drawn to the role mostly for the chance to have a seat on the sidelines with all the top executives as Microsoft’s next console was being developed and eventually launched.[2] In 2016, after contacting some old Bungie friends who now worked at 343 Industries, an opportunity presented itself and Jarrard returned to once again take the lead as Halo's community director.[2]
2008 Bungie.net bio[edit]
Nickname: Sketch
Classification: OldSkool (Old School)
Current Job: Community Guy
Origin: Florida
Blood Type: Red
Age: 31
Weight: Too much
Height: Tallish
Girth: Hearty
First Job: Classified
Hobby: Games!
Ultimate Halo Match: Shotgun - no shield CTF on Battle Creek
Ultimate Snack: Mmmm...snacks...
Ultimate Website: Classified
Best.Show.Ever: The Simpsons
Fake Weapon: Classified
Trivia[edit]
- He has never been to Canada, although his best friend in college was a "pure-blood Canadian".
- Brian on a typical day at Bungie: "For me, a typical day begins with my morning 'rounds' - I check up on the various fan sites and see what's new in the community and what's happening in the various forums around the net. I keep tabs throughout the day as time permits. The rest of my day is pretty typical stuff. You know - meetings to talk about Halo 2 launch plans, jumping in for the occasional multiplayer gameplay session to give feedback the new, downloading the latest single player build to play through, talking about the logo and packaging, discussing and it's relationship to Bungie.net, etc... Just your normal every day meetings."
Gallery[edit]
Brian Jarrard in LEVEL magazine.
Brian Jarrard and Rob Stokes.
Brian Jarrard at Halo: Outpost Discovery in 2019.
