Chris Melissinos

Chris Melissinos is a Principal Evangelist at Amazon Web Services and has spent 25 years where technology and video games meet. He was Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems, created and guest-curated the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition The Art of Video Games, and is a founding board member of the Video Game History Foundation.

Chris Melissinos is a Principal Evangelist at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he connects Amazon’s most innovative technical work with customers worldwide and co-hosts The Cloud Report, AWS’s news livestream. From 2023 to 2026 he was AWS’s Principal Evangelist for Video Games and Immersive Technologies, and before that he led worldwide strategy and business development for the Open 3D Engine (O3DE).

From 2001 to 2010 he was Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems, later adding the role of Chief Evangelist. He led Sun’s games strategy, was a driving force behind Project Darkstar, and founded JavaGaming.org. He went on to serve as Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Verisign, and co-found GoPop.tv. At Verizon from 2013 to 2020 he led media and entertainment strategy, served as Executive Director of Interactive Entertainment at Verizon Media, and ran the 5G Disruption team.

In 2012 he created and guest-curated The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. More than 3.7 million votes from 175 countries helped choose its 80 games, and the exhibition went on to tour 10 more US venues, reaching more than 2.4 million visitors across 11 museums. He wrote the companion book, and his work on the show earned the 2013 Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

He is a founding board member of the Video Game History Foundation, serves on advisory boards for Women in Games International and GDC Community Clubhouse, and is a voting member of BAFTA. He holds a BS in Public Administration from George Mason University. He wrote his first video game on a Commodore VIC-20 in 1980.