Speakers

Hilmar has been leading CCP Games' ongoing success and growth since he was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2004. Hilmar is a strong advocate for the importance of virtual worlds and the power of games to bring people together and create meaningful social experiences. Under Hilmar's management, CCP's critically acclaimed science fiction game EVE Online has pioneered concepts like player-driven digital economies, democratically elected community governments, and free-to-play mechanics long before they became commonplace in the industry. EVE Online, as the largest living work of science fiction, has been celebrating 20 consecutive years of continuous growth in subscriber engagement with no sign of slowing down. Hilmar is a driving force behind CCP's commitment to pioneering innovative and immersive gaming experiences, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to the industry. He has championed the use of cutting-edge technologies in game development to enhance player agency and autonomy, having released spearheading VR games, and his vision for digital economies has helped shape the gaming industry and beyond. In 2018, Hilmar successfully closed a deal to partner with Black Desert Online developer Pearl Abyss in order to realise CCP's future facing changes in strategy and structure. Hilmar has been a featured speaker at dozens of conferences and events, including the Nobel Prize Conference, Slush, DICE, BMO Capital Markets, Game Developer Conference (GDC), Pocket Gamer Connects (PGC) and Casual Connect, among many others. Currently, he is also active on several boards and committees relating to Icelandic information technology and innovation, as well as SIBAC, the advisory council to the mayor of Seoul, Korea. Before his appointment to the CEO position, Hilmar held the title of CCP's Chief Technical Officer, heading the engineering effort required to create the company's persistent virtual world technology and 3D engine. Hilmar has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Iceland.