Sarah Bond is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and beyond. Meet this year’s honorees here.
REDMOND, Washington – Sarah Bond fondly remembers sitting next to her father playing King’s Quest II – solving puzzles, navigating mazes and unlocking doors – all in an effort to rescue the beautiful maiden, Princess Valanice, from captivity.
At age 6, Bond had no idea where those mazes would take her, what was behind those doors in real life. How her video adventures in the land of Kolyma would land her in a front office at Xbox as the first Black woman to helm a major global gaming platform before stepping away from the company on Feb. 20.
“I was completely a gamer growing up,” Bond, 47, told USA TODAY in an interview in January. “My dad was a massive gamer, so it was one of the things that we would do to spend time together. It was a big part of how we connected.”
It became formative in how she sees gaming — as a way to share experiences and achievements with others who may not look like you, may not speak your language, may not live in the same country as you. And she set out to make that inclusive view of the world a reality.
Charting her own course
Unlike the classic path of coder‑turned‑studio‑head, Bond landed the top job based on her experience in strategy and deal‑making—skills she learned as a consultant a McKinsey & Company and several years at T-Mobile, where she served as chief of staff to former CEO John Legere. She joined Microsoft in 2017, serving as a corporate vice president in charge of product and experience for game creators, and was named president of Xbox in 2023.
“I always loved consumer tech,” Bond says. At Yale, STEM and business courses called her name. She then earned a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard. After graduation, “I decided, ‘I’m going to go into consumer tech.’ I really love the intersection of the fast pace of technology with the ability to really touch consumers’ experience. And at the time, people actually said to me, ‘Hey, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.’”
It was the early 2000s. “We didn’t have an iPhone yet,” Bond says. “Facebook wasn’t an IPO.” But she stuck with it. “I never explicitly thought about gaming.” she says. “I was more thinking about just impacting technology.
“And that’s when it hit me that actually where I started was with gaming, that that was a big part of my experience growing up, but that I never had the opportunity to participate in it from the business perspective,” she continues. “So as soon as I saw the opportunity, it sort of clicked in my mind, like, ‘I’m going to jump into this with two feet.’”
Many saw her appointment as a breath of fresh air. Nearly 3 billion people play video games every day globally, making it an estimated $522.45 billion industry. As many as 52% of gamers in the U.S. are women, according to 2025 Global Video Games report by Entertainment Software Association.
And yet only 5% of more than 60 gaming companies have women in leadership roles, and just 12% of leaders come from diverse backgrounds, according to a report by the financial tech company Xsolla.
Bond’s background uniquely prepared her to break the proverbial glass ceiling. “I spent most of my life in positions where I didn’t necessarily fit in,” she says. “I’m a woman who has always worked in environments that are male dominated. I’ve lived in different places around the world. I’m a Black woman, who’s often been in spaces where that’s not the majority of people there, where most people are White.”
“I used to find that very isolating earlier in my career,” she continues. “I realized at some point that it was really unlikely that I was ever going to run into someone who was just like me. But because of the variety of experiences I’ve had, because of the perspectives that I’ve been exposed to, it was all the more likely that I would have something in common with everyone I meet, and that I should focus on that.
“So instead of seeing it as a weight, I see it as an opportunity to build bridges, more shared understanding, more advancement in how we look at the world,” she says. “And I get a lot of energy from that.”
At Xbox, she channeled that energy into helping the brand transition beyond the gaming console to an “everywhere” approach, as cloud gaming grew. She spearheaded Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and championed inclusion across the industry.
“I think my secret superpower is seeing patterns in the noise. White spaces and pockets of opportunity that others don’t see,” she says. “True systems that help unlock opportunities and set direction to help teams really punch through and do things that are new.”
Always moving, always learning
The ability to thrive in new environments is something she learned growing up. Bond’s family – she’s one of seven children – moved five times before she was 10. Her father worked in telecom, and in those days employees moved where their jobs dictated. New Jersey. Colorado. Massachusetts. And then at 10, Bond headed overseas to boarding school in England.
She didn’t know what was next, but she knew more was on the horizon – more mazes to navigate, more puzzles to solve, more doors to be unlocked.
She credits her parents for her curiosity and determination. “They always instilled in me a sense that I controlled my outcomes, that my effort was what really led to my growth. That it was totally okay to try something and not be perfect the first time in,” she says. “I think that’s one of the things my dad was trying to teach me when we’re playing games. Frankly, it’s a great training ground for it because you can be playing a game, you’re on the first level, you die, right?
“But you don’t really die,” she continues, “because you come back and then you try again and you get a little further and a little further and a little further, and you realize that if you keep trying and if you put the effort in, you’re suddenly able to do things that when you first started, you could never do.”
So is game night a thing with her own kids? Oh, yes.
Her daughter, 14, and son, 11, are both gamers. It’s reminiscent of the time Bond spent with her father.
“The beautiful thing that I discovered is that gaming is really unique relative to pretty much anything else you can do in the technology industry, and that it does this beautiful blend of art and science,” she said. “There’s experiences that people can have in games that they couldn’t have otherwise.” Before her next big role, it’s probably safe to bet that she’ll enjoy some down time. Her husband has been a stay at home dad, and before her Xbox departure was announced, she said she’d like to swap jobs with him for a day. “You know how your kids will only talk about their day right when they get in the car? I want to be that person in the car,” she told USA TODAY. There will also likely be some time for a few other favorites. “Bridgerto”n is a guilty pleasure. “Having grown up in England, I love the English references, and it’s just so beautiful and so decadent and always such a joyful and fun story,” she says. And books are a lifetime love: “The opportunity to just get through a couple more books a year? If I had an extra hour in the day, I would definitely take that.”
She helped her successor, Asha Sharma, settle into the role over the course of a few weeks. Another bridge, from one woman to another.
“Creating opportunities for other people and then seeing them succeed,” she says, “That’s just the best. It’s the best.”
Sarah Bond believes gaming has the power to connect us all
